Were Inc Uncaged

by Marcus Breathnach

  the Captain spoke like it was all a joke to him and he spoke without emotion or remorse

  “we all have our reasons for doing what we do, I’m just more efficient in my methods” the Captain smiled, “why are smiling, you're unarmed, you’re surrounded by enemies and you’ve been beating out right”

  Marie snickered with discontent

  “oh no, I’ll never be beaten”

  he declared with a sickening smile before snapping his leg back in place then pulling a combat knife from his waist pouch that hung on his pants behind his back and begun cutting his arm off above the elbow! Both Aisling and Marie were sickened, then with a sharp painful scream and sudden jolt of what remained of his arm the missing limb instantly grew back right before their very eyes.

  “You’ll die here and I will get that battle data”

  he announced laughing, Marie reached for her weapon in a blind rage, but Noelle was throwing by Kian knocking Marie down; Aisling quickly fired her weapon at Kian hitting him several times in the stomach and chest, the impact of the bullets pushed him backwards, but he didn’t seem to really be affected by the pain! Aisling abruptly turned to Captain Quis Podex and watched in stunned stillness as his body was be coated in a dull dark foggy green liquid armour plating that appeared to pour out from his skin wriggling along his body like it was trying to connect together as one complete piece

  “as I said, I’m more efficient in my methods”

  the Captain chuckled before his head too was coated in the armour-plated substance representing a reptile mask of some kind. The plates on both his shoulders separated partly and from the openings sprung rope like tentacles, wrapping themselves around Aisling’s hands lifting her off her feet allowing him the perfect chance to beat on the defenceless woman, punching her in the chest and stomach again and again; each punch becoming more furious and forceful then the last, yet it seemed Aisling was not been hurt as much as he would have liked! Marie and Noelle shakily got back up ready to fight like dogs to their feet where Noelle was met by Finn who stood between them and Kian.

  “You took your time”

  Finn grinned shaking Kian’s hand

  “what are you doing?”

  Noelle bellowed to Finn

  “nine hundred years I’ve suffered you weak fools, Riga has promised me a battle worthy of my death”

  Finn declared, Noelle looked to Finn with her jaw clenched, she looked at him with the purest form of disdain

  “if you want to die, I’ll grant you that”

  Noelle screamed attacking both Kian and Finn! Her quickness and her nimbleness allowed her to avoid many of their strikes and retaliate with some of her own, Captain Quis Podex played with Marie using his whip like tentacles to attack her while he continued to attack Aisling with his fists.

  The flames of the harbour had risen upwards toward the heavens covering the emerald bay with a dense red glare, everyone was now seen red, Captain Quis Podex used more tentacle whips from different shifting plates on his new living armour to take the weapons from both Aisling and Marie, tossing them into the blazing inferno,

  “Steven! I’ll hold your head in my hands before I crush it, I promise you that you bastard”

  Marie roared at him

  “No, not Steven, I am Viper and I’ve played with you long enough”

  explained the former Captain Quis Podex, now calling himself Viper, he knocked Marie out with a tentacle adorned with a hammer head shape at its tip, the sickening thud when it struck her head would have made anyone flinch but he simply turned his attention back to Aisling and began to choke her with his bare hands until she was unconscious.

  “Don’t kill her, she can be useful”

  Viper announced to Kian and Finn as they were about deliver the killing blow to Noelle

  “you got lucky bitch”

  Kian snarled as he raised his first to strike her with just enough force to knock her out cold.

  Chapter 8: Testing the symbiote

  When the team woke they were in an elaborate colosseum style arena that seemed to be deep underground or in a gigantic cave

  “why are we still alive?”

  Noelle groaned aloud struggling to collect her senses

  “he wants battle data for Were Inc”

  Marie replied as she got to her feet slower than normally.

  Her first thought was to look for a weapon or anything that could have been used as a weapon, but nothing around her could have been used as a weapon, unless she wanted to throw dirt in Kian and Finn’s eyes or pelt them with small rocks. ‘Battle data trail number 914612 will commence in three, two, one’ announced an automated voice followed by the cave ceiling opening where a holding chamber was suspended,

  “uh what the hell now!”

  Aisling grounded, tired, sore and dizzy holding her head that throbbed in pain, it wasn’t until they all heard the sound of solid rock been crushed by great force that they paid real attention to their situation, the ground shuck with each mighty crushing crack, they shared a look among the three of them before leering at the double doors across the colosseum

  “oh, goodie another cluster fuck of crap”

  Marie grumbled.

  The colosseum began to crumble from the constant shaking of the earth when the double door opened to release a symbiote of immense size; this giant symbiote bared down upon the trio, its size was so great it made the serpents in the emerald bay seem like tadpoles

  “oh, we gonna fucken die!”

  Aisling drawled as she backed away from it with Marie

  ‘Project mortal, Juggernaut class trial underway, recoding, commenced, battle data streaming, commenced’ the automated voice announced again echoing throughout the arena.

  “Juggernaut huh, ok, it’s to be a fight to the death than”

  Noelle muttered to herself

  “come on than you murderous bitch!”

  roared Marie ready to fight against an enemy she had no clue how to defeat, however if she was going to die, she wasn’t willing to go down without a fight, she had been through too much to be frightened anymore.

  Kian, Finn and Viper must have been watching the death match from somewhere nearby but the team would need to focus their attention completely on the oozing Juggernaut that made its way towards them surprisingly quickly! All Aisling and Marie could do was run and struggle to avoid the creature hoping it would not be able to catch them until they found a way to defeat it. The pair ducked into a small secondary enclosure to the side of the arena where they found dead Were Inc soldiers

  “they’ve been dead for about, four years judging by the state of the bodies, take their weapons, its better then been empty handed”

  Marie shouted to Aisling

  “45cal socom pistols!”

  Aisling muttered tossing one to Marie

  “fully loaded, with, eight clips still in his vest and not a bullet casing anywhere, he died in an instant, properly of a heart attack after seen that thing”

  Aisling explained as she searched the body

  “focus on the Juggernaut, everything else can wait!”

  Marie instructed peeking out to the battle between Noelle and the Juggernaut. Noelle was trying to strand toe to toe with the massive symbiote, she was avoiding its hands and its outstandingly long reach, she somehow picked up an impossibly heavy fallen pillar to strike the Juggernaut with breaking the pillar into several bits. It clearly hurt the Juggernaut symbiote as its groans indicated

  “Dam”

  Aisling yelped as she watched Noelle’s great achievement.

  That was until the Juggernauts body became as hard as the stone pillar Noelle had struck it with, it seemed to be no longer be affected by her basic attacks, but she could do nothing else.

  “Now”

  Marie yelled running out to the arena with Aisling firing their weapons at the stone Juggernaut

  “Noelle, get back”

  Aisling shouted, Noelle was short of breath and drained from the
constant struggle. Noelle backed away from the symbiote still staggered by its size. Aisling and Marie fired upon it careful to conserve ammunition; its new stone coating seemed to slow its movements enough for Aisling and Marie to avoid its arms with little hassle. Noelle could only watch on, as she caught her breath and examined the dead soldiers her protectors had found earlier. Aisling was quick and nimble with her shapely powerful legs she was able to outrun the massive reach of the Juggernaut, Marie however wasn’t as lucky, she misjudged the reach of the juggernaut and was grabbed by the right hand that held her tight and high in the air far out of Aisling’s reach. Aisling tried to think if there was any way she could free Marie from its grasp but there was nothing she could think of, Marie let out an unmerciful cry of extreme pain as the hand tightened its grip crushing a number of her bones with each inch its grip tightened

  “Aisling, aim for that thing up there”

  Noelle shouted as she dragged the dead bodies that Aisling and Marie had found out into the arena

  “what’s in it?”

  asked Aisling

  “I’ve got a good idea, just do it, I’ve got a goddamn plan”

  replied Noelle running to Aisling pushing her out of the way of the Juggernauts left hand, Noelle rolled head over heels then sprang into action grabbing two hand grenades from one of the dead soldiers belt and quickly ran up the Juggernauts arm, throwing the two hand grenades into the Juggernauts gaping mouth before leaping across onto its right arm narrowly avoiding its left hand that came swinging with purpose to grab her; Noelle made her way along its right arm to get to Marie, when the grenades exploded inside the Juggernaut’s mouth it caused some real pain forcing it to release its grip on Marie and cover its mouth with both hands. Noelle jumped grabbing Marie as she fell then rolled in the air, so she would take the brunt of the fall when they hit the ground, she knew she would survive the fall but Marie would not, Aisling had shot at the hanging chamber but could not get it to open and so she turned her attention to the Juggernaut again, now it was using its right hand to block its face, in doing this it somewhat impeded its own vision

  “do you think you can get that thing open?”

  Noelle asked Marie picking up and returning Marie’s handgun then looking up to the hanging chamber

  “I think so”

  Marie replied holding her ribs Noelle helped Marie to stand

  “do you got a plan?”

  Marie asked to Noelle

  “yeah, this thing seems to mimic whatever hurts it, the pillar hurt it, now it’s as solid as stone, one of the dead soldiers had a digicord explaining why they're here, trust me, just, ah, in short make it human make it dead”

  Noelle screamed.

  While they talked Aisling was fighting to stay alive, racing and jumping over debris to avoid the Juggernaut’s overly scaled hands. Marie took aim at the hanging chamber Noelle and Aisling tried to give her some free time as they distracted the Juggernaut. Attacking it from two different directions at once, Noelle ran around the arena with quickness equal to the speed of sound. But she stopped in her tracks when she saw the Juggernaut raise both hands and quickly slam them down onto Aisling! Try as Aisling might she could not have avoided that massive attack; Aisling’s body however seemed to become astral, she became like a pale white and sky blue mist, while she could be seen she couldn’t be harmed in anyway? When the Juggernauts hands slammed to the earth the force caused a small creator around Aisling and it flew into a rage when it saw that Aisling was unharmed. The Juggernaut tried many times to grab her or crush with its hands and its tentacles, each time they simply passed right through her. Aisling had no idea how she had become astral

  “Get back”

  Marie shouted as the front of the chamber fell between Noelle and the Juggernaut, they all looked to the chamber that now showed a body trapped within it; the body was impaled with a number of silver chains, its hands pinned to his chest with a sword!

  “shite, shoot out the chains, I’ll get the sword”

  Noelle shouted as she raced towards the Juggernaut running in circles as before, trying to get it to lower its hands once more. Marie took aim with Aisling, with the reaming bullets in their weapons they were able to shoot the chains free just in time for the Juggernaut to grab Marie again and slam its other hand down upon Aisling, this time it did as intended and crushed her onto the ground. They were both trapped by the Juggernaut and scarcely able to breath, its weight was crushing Aisling and its strength was crushing Marie, this was the only chance Noelle would have to get the sword from the man’s chest. She ran towards Aisling turning quickly and begun to race up the massive arm as she did before, this time the Juggernaut had a new trick to unveil, as it opened its mouth and acid coated oozing tongues reached franticly for her, Noelle was able to avoid them just long enough to grab the handle of the sword, but it was drove in so deep it was not going to be removed without serious vigour. The Juggernaut wrapped its acidic tongues around Noelle’s legs and her right wrist pulling her relentlessly towards its mouth, Noelle was not willing to relinquish her hold on the swords handle! The Juggernaut continued to pull Noelle with such strain it almost pulled her arm and legs from her body; if the sword had not come free of the body Noelle would have surely been dismembered. Noelle swung in the Juggernauts grip, dangling sixty to seventy feet in the air; she used the sword she held so tightly to cut the oozing acidic tongues holding her burning into her flesh, she fell to the ground cracking the earth bouncing up onto her hands and knees but her grip on the sword was as tight as it ever was. She crawled to Aisling hoping to free her from the symbiotes hold, while on her knees she began striking the massive hand with all of her might, to no avail, the sword was having little effect on its stone armor, Noelle could feel the symbiote bearing down upon her, she had little energy left to fight with and her will was wavering; she was ready to turn and accept her fate when the Juggernaut stopped its attack. It robotically lifted its hand from Aisling and freed Marie from its grasp, Noelle scuttled along the ground to Aisling’s side throwing her arm around Aisling’s waist to support her as they both faintly struggled to reach Marie

  “stay with me”

  Noelle weakly called to Marie as Marie begun to cough up blood

  “Noelle”

  Aisling called out bringing her attention to the man that had fallen from the chamber, he now stood facing the Juggernaut like he was protecting them! He was tall, quite muscular, with long unkempt hair and beard, he had a number of tattoos on the right side of his body, he was naked, unashamed and unarmed and yet despite been nude and unarmed he faced the Juggernaut without fear! The man was clearly mortally wounded it was virtually impossible that he was standing tall and strong, with the deathly open sword wound in his chest and the gaping wounds in his wrist and legs, he would be nothing more than fodder for the symbiote, but Noelle could have used that as part of her plan.

  “Mé Croí, Michéal?”

  Aisling cried out,

  Noelle jumped her attention between the man and Aisling, Marie watched in disbelief as the man begun to smile at them and winked at Aisling before facing the symbiote and begun to transform his body. His muscles grew larger and greatly more defined, his skeleton strengthened and contorted without breaking, his teeth became less man and more animalistic, his eyes reshaped and lost their all sense of humanity; they became the green glowing eyes of a beast, his fingers thickened and elongated with his nails sharpening to become claws that could rip through anything in his path, he became coated in fur like it was a second skin when finally his face twisted between man and beast settling into the mythological lycanthrope! Before them stood Michéal prince of Eiru, prince of all lycanthropes, free once more to run rampant across Eiru delivering his own brand of merciless justice.

  Once Michéal’s transformation was complete the automated voice spoke once again ‘Symbiote, Juggernaut class, battle data live streaming to HQ, commencing, Prince of all lycanthropes battle data live streaming to HQ, commencing
, final trail 2151435 to commence in three, two, one’ The Juggernaut either allowed Michéal to finished his transformation or it was ordered to do so before attacking him! It dropped its bus sized right hand down on Michéal in the same way as it did to Aisling intending to crush Michéal however; Michéal raised his left arm stopping the Juggernauts attack with some difficulty. Then with a mighty roar from Michéal that caused Noelle and Marie to cower in fear but strangely aroused and excited Aisling! Michéal dug his claws into the stone hand he held over his head and sharply pulled the arm from the symbiotes body tossing it away like it was trash, never moving his gaze from the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut cried out in anguish making a sound that only could be described as a wounded dinosaur calling for its mother; the Juggernaut reached out from its wound with the same acidic burning tongues as before desperately searching for its missing limb quickly dragging it back and re-attaching it to its body; upon seeing this Noelle quickly reformulated her plan while she watched Michéal battle this once seemingly indestructible Juggernaut symbiote. His claws shredding the symbiotes stone armour like it was paper, only to have the Juggernaut reattach the fallen plates, but each time it did so, it seemed to reattach them slower and slower, when Michéal targeted other parts of it body they were been reattached quicker than the plates? He asked himself why but he didn’t really care, if he could get its protective plates off once and for all he could create a plan of his own to end the creature.

  “Michéal, pull its arm off again”

  Noelle shouted as she lifted herself off the ground still holding the silver sword with the tightest grip she could manage, Michéal was only happy to indulge her request, he relished the thrill of battle, he relished fighting an enemy he could not defeat and somehow defeat it. Noelle disappeared from sight for a few moments leaving Aisling to try and comfort a dying Marie, when Noelle reappeared she was carrying the body of a dead soldier on her shoulder

  “now, rip that bitch apart!”

  Noelle shrieked to Michéal, she was answered with a wolfish grin that grew to evil delight. Michéal let out the mightiest roar that had ever been heard in Eiru’s history before he bared his teeth and sank them into the Juggernauts hand, shredding its armour with his claws howling as he snapped off several of it fingers then enjoyably ripped off both its arms, he scaled its body like it was a living mountain and reached into its mouth gathering a cluster of its acidic tongues and wrenching them out of its mouth and with relentless claw swipes to the neck of the symbiote he walked his way across its broad shoulders beheading it. Standing on the headless, limbless symbiote holding the acid tongues in his hand growling and howling in victory like a deranged animal. He leapt from the remains of the symbiote to the ground as it fell over unable to support itself, he returned to his human form and drawing closer to the three ladies. proud with his victory, the symbiote reached out once more desperately using all its free tongues to search in all directions like it was its last-ditch effort to survive. Noelle approached it with caution and threw the dead body to the searching tongues; the body was caught readily and absorbed into remaining shell of what Michéal left from his savage assault. It slowly lost its stone appearance and protection taking on the appearance of a human being, a creation of flesh and blood that was bleeding to death it could not attach anymore of its previous limbs, flesh now covered its body and it could only reach out with its acidic straps that flopped about from its mouth, it did just as Noelle wanted it to, it had killed itself. Its appearance was now even more repulsive than before, it resembled something human but it was neither man nor woman but a non-descriptive abomination