Capítulo 113: The Solution is Solution
--Eira POV--
Having placed Eden in the locked room and making a quick mat for her to lay on, I gather the Brutes. They await my arrival eagerly with Dolt and Goliath at the helm, each with their own exaggerated thumbs-up.
Meanwhile, the researchers have retreated, into their respective offices, due to the Brutes palpable enthusiasm to fight. I'm tempted to leave a Brute behind to dissuade attempts to flee, but I doubt any Brute would be willing. I also am not particularly concerned since getting to the Security Office in the facility's current state is not as easy as it would seem. Not to mention, the only one that knows the Security Office is even safe and not compromised is Carl, who I have also resolved to bring with me to prevent the leaking of that info.
"You ready for battle, Carl!? Should be fun, huh!" I shout, raising my arm high to slap him gently on the back.
Carl stumbles forward under the impact of my slap with a green face, giving me some always welcome amusement.
The Brutes, Carl, and I walk toward the hallway where the exo-soldiers and Dr. Wright are held up. As if warming up, the Brutes punch and slap one another and excitedly. I grip the scythe to contact Aponi and confirm that everything is ready to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.
'Is everything ready to go, Aponi! Can I finally see what all the prep work has led to!?'
'Yeah… I guess.' She pauses for a moment. 'I just have to wait until the researchers on our side barricade themselves, and Sam is in position. Oh, and try not to kill the researcher that was taken prisoner or the Asian lady that had the ring with her.'
'What is it you'll be doing?'
'I'm going to be dealing with the piranha solution since I, unfortunately, have the regeneration Talent thing…'
'Hmm, what is that supposed to mean? Why so hesitant?'
'Because this is going to be painful…' She sighs through the connection, obviously wishing for me to hear her. 'Anyway, just attack in fifteen or so minutes; you'll know when it's time.'
Aponi disconnects, seemingly a bit lost in thought, leaving me a bit curious, but…
'Wait, did she say fifteen minutes?' I turn around, walking backward.
Clapping my hands together a few times over, I draw the attention of… Carl, since the Brutes are too passionate to hear the sounds of my tiny hands clapping. Thus I act as if getting Carl's attention was my goal the whole time. "It's good you're paying attention, Carl! I like that. Now get ready to run, because we don't have much time!"
"R-run a-again!? B-but my legs! They burn with the fury of a thousand suns!"
Laughing, I start jogging toward the location of the battle. The Brutes follow suit, nearly trampling Carl, who has to swiftly pick up his pace or end up as a meaty tortilla on the floor.
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--Dr. Wright POV--
I sit in my office with a pounding headache from having my head nearly caved in a couple of days ago now. Things with my head have not improved, and I increasingly find myself more and more tired. I'm almost positive I must be experiencing the effects of a severe concussion, or worse, a brain bleed.
Regardless, whatever is wrong with me, I can tell that the injury is worse than I initially believed. With this in mind, my current priority is to get through the door that has been blocked by this magical black screen.
'I have to get past that damnable door! The poison and the tonic, I need both of them. One for that thing and one for me, but first, I smell something fishy.'
Yawning, I glare at the shivering Asian woman across from me; I believe her name was Dr. Akemi… something. Trying to remember makes my head hurt.
I lean back in my chair, crossing my arms, "Akemi, is it? How are you still alive after all the hours those things have been stomping around."
She bows her head low. "Dr. Wright, I swear I just ran here for help. I don't have any ulterior motives, I promise."
"Psh, you are not as good of a liar as you think you are." My words make her grimace, further giving away her hidden purposes. "In fact, you're quite bad at it."
Yet, her grimace abruptly changes, this time to a look of concern. "Dr. Wright, are you okay?"
'What is she playing at? I had my doctorate before she was even born! Does she really think she can fool me?!'
"I think you should be worried about yourself, not me," I say with a small chuckle.
"But… your eyes." My brows furrow, at least I think they do; oddly, I cannot actually tell due to a lack of feeling. "Your pupils are different sizes; that's not a good sign. Have you had that head injury checked by a professional doctor?"
Feeling my face, I find the skin a bit looser than usual, but nothing out of the ordinary. "...I-I am fin—"
Suddenly, from the hall, those troglodytes start yelling, "Hey! What're you doing!"
"Goddammit." I raise my fist and slam it down upon my desk, pointing at Dr. Akemi. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back."
I enter the hall, where I find a pair of the specially equipped mercenaries beating against a door.
"What's going on here!?" I shout.
A veteran mercenary nods at me with a peculiar intensity. "Don't worry, Doctor. Those researchers you told us to keep an eye on locked themselves in and are now in the process of barricading the doors. We'll have this door down in a few minutes."
"It better be…!"
'Wait? Why would they be barricading themselves?'
Just as I am about to ask the veteran, I feel something push against the small of my back. It doesn't take me long to realize what the cold metal is—a pistol.
"Ah, Doctor! I have that… thing you asked for," a man with the voice of a dimwit speaks jovially.
Looking back, I discover a large man with a big muscular build. He smiles, exposing two sharp teeth, obviously unaware that he has given himself away.
'A dingus of a vampire. He actually looks familiar… wait, is this the same vampire we captured earlier? Except with goggles and a clean shave?'
He pushes the pistol further into my back and moves uncomfortably close. "Is everything okay, Doctor? Perhaps, ibuprofen would help… that head wound definitely makes me think you might have a concussion."
My eyes shoot between the vampire and the nearby soldiers, but to my great annoyance, they don't seem to notice my circumstances. From behind me, I hear him murmur he is about to pull the trigger, so I quickly reply, "Oh, yes! Oh, yes! That thing that I would ask a total moron like you to get for me!"
"...Moron?" I hear him whisper under his breath as he pokes my back.
Clumsily, he goads me toward my office, but before we make it, another of my mercenaries steps in front of us.
"Is something wrong, Doctor? Why are you and this rent-a-guard so close to one another?" he asks.
Surprisingly instead of keeping his mouth shut, the vampire takes the initiative to respond, "Huh! Don't you know?"
"Know what?" the mercenary questions.
"That the Doctor and I are great friends. We've been friends for years, in fact!" he says with a hearty laugh.
"Is that so?" I gaze at the mercenary with begging eyes prompting him to change his grip on his weapon to a more ready position. "Then tell me a bit about the Doctor; I'm curious. He doesn't talk about himself much."
"Well… he..." The vampire takes a deep breath through his nose as if he's preparing to give a long-winded answer. "He uses dandruff shampoo, but I don't think he actually has dandruff."
"..."
"..."
He chuckles awkwardly and continues, "The Doctor also likes long walks on the beach and the smell of a freshly mown lawn in the morning. Isn't… isn't that right, Doctor?"
The mercenaries raise their rifles, and I suddenly find myself being grabbed and nearly choked to death in this baboon's biceps. He lifts me from the ground, causing me to kick my legs, and puts his gun to my head.
"P-put me down!" I barely manage to say.
'I can't breathe!'
Slowly the vampire backs up, placing his back against a wall. Firmly planted against the wall, he lowers me, allowing me to touch the floor, so I may breathe.
"Sorry, Doctor, but I was told to expect this, so I already planned to take you, hostage," he whispers to me.
'Huh? He knew this would happen. Is someone working with him?'
My eyes shift from left to right, looking for any signs of another person. That's when I notice movement coming from one of the rooms at the back. The same place the researchers that barricaded themselves had been doing their research for methods to remove the black barrier if the controlled explosives didn't work. It is also the room closest to the fortifications set up by the mercenaries.
I watch a woman with long black hair and tan skin pace about nervously observing the altercation currently taking place closely. She seems eager to assist the vampire man but refuses to move far from a tank we use to make large quantities of piranha solution to rid ourselves of dangerous failed experiments. Strangely the experiments exhibited resistance to fire and extreme temperatures in general. Thus we had this tank specially made to create large amounts of the solution at once and then drain the solution away where it is diluted elsewhere.
'Why is that tank full? They were only supposed to make a small amount to test on the barrier.'
"Put down the Doctor if you want to live!" a mercenary shouts, "It's impossible for you to escape."
The vampire man responds with something that only he thinks is clever, but it's mostly gibberish, so I ignore it. 'If his goal was to kill me, he would have already done it, and I think the fact he planned to take me hostage beforehand further proves that theory.'
Clearly, he is stalling, so instead, I keep my attention on the woman. She grabs a table and breaks the legs off of it. The legs come off smoothly, indicating that they had been prepared for whatever she is doing. Setting the first table near the tank, she grabs a second table again and breaks its legs off. Placing it at the end of the previous table. All of this is done smoothly, as if she has run the events through her head several times over.
'A sloped ramp?' From behind a wall, she pulls one last thing. 'A tub? Is she… Wait!'
"Fools! Stop that woman!" I shout at the mercenaries kicking in the direction of the woman.
But, it is too late, the woman raises her rifle, and several gunshots echo through the halls. Being specially made, the glass does not immediately break, but cracks are gradually spreading across the tank's surface.
"Stop her!" the veteran orders.
The veteran is the first to act, raising his weapon and firing. A bullet pierces the shoulder of the woman, staggering her. He moves forward, preparing to take the woman's life, when the vampire man shifts his pistol and fires. The pistol is so close, one of my eardrums bursts, my vision turns blurry, and for a moment, I feel as if I might vomit from the combination of the gunshot and my probable concussion. When my vision clears, I see the veteran on the ground with a large hole in his cranium.
With the death of one of the more skilled mercenaries here combined with the overall turmoil, the room goes temporarily silent. Leaving nothing but the creaking sound of cracking glass and an eerie sizzle as drops of the piranha solution hit the tables below the tank.
"Kill the woman and then rescue the doctor!" someone yells.
However, the woman is ahead of them and fires one more shot into the tank, causing it to burst.
The yellowish liquid surges out, and upon making contact with the tables, the liquid looks as if it is boiling. It slides down the tables, rapidly pouring over the sides of the tables and into the hall where it spreads toward the mercenary's positions. This forces them to either abandon them or stand in the volatile acid.
Ultimately, some of the solution persists and spills into the tub. First gas bellows out, and then... an explosion. Burning hot liquid splatters across the room, making contact with the bare skin of everyone in the vicinity. Some of the worst are the people who were close to the tube, including the woman herself. The ones struck by the liquid drop to the floor and kick the floor to keep a distance from the remaining liquid while others run far away, searching for water to dilute the substance. The most unfortunate of them all, however, is a researcher who panicked and fell to the floor, coating himself the burning hot, oxidizing solution.
I cough as the gas spreads, burning my eyes and lungs. Yet I cannot help but notice the shaking ground and the thunderous chant, """Naht Guh!"""
Status de energia semanal
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