บท 1: Beast and Beauty
I was walking with a friend of mine down to an abandoned warehouse that we now keep as a base of operations, 'for what?', you might ask? Well you see we're mercenaries, but I'm one that has the ability to transform into a beast of unimaginable power. I was genetically created in a lab and broke free with the help of a scientist that treated me like I was her kid. Her name was Serra, I believe. I don't know what happened to her. But my backstory is for another time, I'm in the present. We got to the warehouse and I opened the door for my buddy, letting her go in before me because I had to bend down just to go through the doorway. "Alright, another successful operation done."
I said in a gentle tone. I smiled and looked down at her, sorry I should have mentioned that I was about 9ft because of being an experiment. She looked up at me and nodded, "I agree." Looking up at the rafters to see various 'rooms' built I smiled then I spoke, "Hey Shayna, do you think I could ever become a normal person again? Just curious." Shayna's eyes grew wide before hitting my arm, "Fuzz butt! I like you the way you are now. We're a team and I'm glad to have met you," she paused before closing her eyes with a small smile,"I don't know where I would be without you, you're a rock, you're my best friend Shawl."
I close my eyes and walk deeper into the warehouse before going up some metal stairs before yelling out to her, "Thanks, that means a lot to me! Well, I'm going to bed." I look out the corner of my eyes to see her shake her head at that. I walk down a pathway to my room and I go into my room before closing the door. Flopping onto the twin bed I yawned loudly before instantly falling asleep. I woke an hour later to the smell of food being cooked, it smelled like onions and some sort of beef. I looked at the clock and saw that it was now a quarter past 8 at night. I stretched before getting out of my bed before going to the bathroom. Once there I looked into a mirror and saw that my outfit had small tears in them. I loved wearing my black cargo shorts and black button up shirt combo too. But too bad I had to get rid of them, or at least go get them sewn, again. I turned on the water for my shower to get it to my level of heat that I love. I stripped out of my clothes as I waited and saw that I had another long cut going from the top of my left pectoral to the bottom right of it and grumbled, "I guess I'm going to get another scar. If I'm unlucky that is. Hopefully I don't get one."
I grab my tangle free shampoo and start to wash my hair, finishing rather quickly I get out and wrap a cream colored towel around my waist keeping the wound in the open. Walking back to my bedroom to grab some clothes as I hear Shayna yell from our little makeshift kitchen area,"Shawl dinner's ready! I made your favorite!" I lick my lips anticipating the cooking, I love the taste of Moussaka. Especially when she cooks it. I can't cook to save my damn life. She looked at me before saying, "Tried a new recipe for this one. I hope you like it Fluffy."
Smiling at her words, "I bet it tastes good all the same. Let's sit down relax and put on a show. I don't care what show either." She carries the food to the den and sets it on the coffee table in front of a small television set. I look towards her before grabbing a soda for her and a cup of water for me. Then I grab some plates before going to sit next to her. She looks at me surprised, "I'm surprised that you didn't get whiskey there. You rarely drink water." I set the stuff down before plopping down on the couch next to her. "I thought a small change in my drink choices should slightly change." I replied. The two of us enjoyed our meals and each other's company before falling asleep on the couch with the tv on.
The following day I woke up before my short friend; which is surprising considering I've never woken up before her. I looked down at her to see her head resting against my arm. Quickly and carefully getting up and laying her carefully down on the couch I go outside our home to get some fresh air. A couple minutes later I heard a loud ringing noise and smirked. Walking inside to hear Shayna on the phone with someone and me being curious I walked to where I could kind of make out her talking about a task. She looked over from where she was standing holding the phone next to her ear she saw me and mouthed 'we got a job'. Bidding the person on the other end farewell she hung up and smirked.
"Got a job in the mountains. So pack your coat and let's get going." I replied with a simple "ok" before going to grab our gear for this kind of job. I came back with two duffel bags packed with clothes and weapons. "What vehicle we taking? And what are we getting from this?" I asked."We're getting a good two hundred thousand and some information on a certain person. Also we're going to be taking Strikr." Strikr was a black Jeep Cherokee with flame decal that the government gave us as a reward for capturing a group of snipers that went rogue back two years ago, back in 2033. I am so very glad we got it for free too. That was hard as hell to do too, I remember getting put in the hospital when one of the wankers got a clean shot on my leg. I still feel it. Enough going down that memory, I pack up the gear in the back before getting in the drivers seat and waited for her.
Shayna got into the passengers side and we quickly headed out. Glancing over to her as I drive, "Which mountain we going to?" "We're going to be searching the Sawatch Range for a lab that's rumored to be used for creating weapons for the Silver Sentinels. They set up a cabin for us and a helicopter for a higher view." Growling at the name,"Bastards are still active?! I thought they would have died by now. All the members were a bunch of batshit insane lab rats." She chuckled at my words. Then her voice softened," That's true, although a crude way of saying it. They probably recruited people that were just as deranged as they were." I grunt at that. I turned on the radio only to hear the golden voices of Jade and Dragon.
The trip took a couple of days, including the stops for food, gas and bathroom breaks. It was around midnight when they reached their base for the next few days. I opened my eyes, and stretched before getting out and seeing Shayna come out of the place we'll call home. "They gave us enough food to last for a couple days, and some firearms." I heard her say."I hate those things." I said rolling my eyes. She let out an angelic laugh as I carried the duffles into the cabin we got cleaned up and went to bed. We woke up around dawn then made a quick breakfast before gearing up. She walked up to the chopper and got into the cockpit and put a headset on her head and I got into the back and did the same thing. I heard her voice over the headset as she started doing things to get us airborne. "Ready to get this show started?" "Yeah. The sooner the better." After a couple minutes I felt us move up and I looked out the window. "Alright keep your eyes peeled."
I nodded before picking up a pair of binoculars. I'd have to say it's been about half an hour with nothing out of the ordinary before I saw what looked like a grey metal rod. "I see something at our four." I mumbled over the headset before I felt the helicopter shift to go to the rod. We landed soon after and got our weapons ready after getting out of the bird. The giant rod was wrapped in a lot of barbed wire leading to a forest. I nodded my head in the direction of where the barbed wire. "Keep your head on a swivel, we don't know what we're actually getting into." I pursed my lips at that information but I made a sound of understanding.
Swinging my rifle to my back and pulling out a small AR. I don't really use guns but this was the only brand of weapons they gave us to use. We trudged through the forest for what seemed like forever killing a couple animals. We kept following the barbed wire and smaller metal rods up until we ran into a beige colored building with stained windows and a big metal door. We got on both sides of the door before kicking it in and pointing our respective weapons into the building. We walked inside slowly with me in front because I'm more durable than my companion.The building was dark but with the door opened we didn't need flashlights as of yet. We walked through a generic hallway that'd you would probably find in a movie. It had portraits of what we assume were scientists. We saw a door underneath one of the pictures and quietly moved towards it. I whispered,"We need to be careful. I don't like the feeling this place is giving me. It's making the beast restless." Hearing that she her eyes grew cold,"That doesn't bode well for us then." Opening the door the barrel of Shawna's gun pointing into the room from underneath my arm.
A stench hit my nose as soon as the door was barely cracked, I instantly covered it with my shirt. "Dear sweet Cailleach that smells." Once those words left my mouth we heard the sound of pitter-pattering. I looked down at her as we walked into the room ready for whatever lies inside. We turned on the flashlights mounted on our guns and scanned the room. I heard the sound of something screeching. Out of the corner of my eye I barely caught something grab a vent that was in the corner of the room and pulled it closed. I signaled to her about that knowing that she was looking. We searched the room for a couple minutes finding nothing out of the ordinary until something liquid landed on Shayna causing her to squeal in surprise.
I looked over towards her and asked, "What's wrong?" She shuddered before looking up as she said,"Something wet landed on me." She shone her flashlight up at the ceiling and saw what looked like black goop on it before she continued,"Is....is that ink?" Walking over to her I looked at it and pulled out a napkin and carefully reached up and swiped against it. Carefully folding it up and putting it back in his pocket. "Let's keep looking around," I said, "then we can get out of here." We left the room before looking through the rest of the rooms finding nothing out of the ordinary besides dust covering some of the things in the rooms.We decided to call it a day before screams were heard from somewhere. Trying to pinpoint the noise we ran back into one of the rooms across from the 'Ink Room' as we called it and saw a liquid coming from behind a portrait of an old woman wearing a lab coat and an eye patch. We pointed our guns at the picture and shuffled towards the picture. I looked at her and points to my eyes then at the picture. Seeing her nod in confirmation and held her weapon ready to shoot, I got close to the picture when a putrid smell hit my nose, I then slowly started to move the picture carefully trying not to get the mysterious liquid on my hand.
I gagged when I barely lifted it up and she gasped. "I don't think there's a wall behind the picture. It's barely hanging on to it," she took a small breath, "I think this place is a lot bigger than we think." Finishing taking off the picture to reveal a dark tunnel, she shone her flashlight into it and it barely lit it. I set the picture down on the floor before climbing into the tunnel with my gun and flashlight pointing in front of me. I slowly trekked through the mysterious liquid and I heard Shayna climb into the tunnel to follow me.
As we walked deeper into the dank, dark tunnel; we heard the sound of laughter and screams. We also heard an unnatural sounding voice. As we got closer to the exit of the tunnel a bright light appeared and the voice albeit the unknown being maundered, we could make out words like human, blood, and silence. I reached the end of the tunnel first and saw a room with a few vats, file cabinets, and a bookshelf. I turned off my before quietly getting out of the tunnel. Quietly making my way to a filing cabinet to use as cover, then I heard foot steps coming from where I came from. Assuming it was Shayna, I scoped out the area I could see, before I saw Shayna taking up a spot behind me using me as cover.
"Well, this is an unusual place." I whispered. I heard footsteps and growling coming from where the vats were before hearing a roar and glass break. Shayna whispered, "I don't like the sound of whatever broke something." I nodded, "I don't either but we need to stop it before it gets out." I heard her sigh before I start to walk out with my gun pointing towards the vats. Widening my eyes I saw a squid-lion-human hybrid with its tentacles stuck into the wall.
It sniffed the air before turning and looking at us, and in its unnatural voice it shouted, "Well, well, well I think I need to see what kind of meat I can get from you!" It then leapt at me ripping its tentacles out of the wall in the process bringing small chunks of concrete with them. I dove out of the way before firing a couple rounds at it, some of them hitting but not breaking the skin. I growled as the creature thrusted its tentacles at me again and I jump out of the way. "I hate this so much!" I yelled as the creature let out a deranged laugh.
After a couple minutes of dodging its tentacles and shooting at it in different spots I started to pant. I saw Shayna trying to sneak around to behind the monster as it focused on me. She nodded her head as I kept dodging while she aimed her gun at its back. I heard a gunshot as I kept the creatures focus on me, next thing I knew it growled and turned towards her before lunging at her. My eyes widened a little bit, knowing her reflexes weren't as good as mine. She got hit and knocked into the wall. I let out a soft growl as my arms and face started to grow fur, my nails grew and sharpened, and my teeth got sharper. "Leave her ALONE!" I shouted as my transformation finished. I leapt at the creature and swiped at it and to my shock even though I didn't show it, it drew blood.
It howled in pain as I grabbed the back of its head and threw it away from Shayna, then I looked down to see her with her hand on her chest and it rising and falling. "Good." I whispered my voice changing from its usual gentleness. I ran towards the creature with my new claws by my side and started to swipe at it ferociously; drawing more and more blood from it. It let out a shriek and stabbed at me with its tentacles and one of them managed to impale me in the shoulder.
It seemed like the fight went on for a good hour with me and the creature exchanging blows. It ended with me holding my bleeding side, bleeding hole in my shoulder, and the creature missing its tentacles and a missing arm. I was panting as I limped over to see Shayna standing up with her hand over her chest still. "Let's get out of here." I said in between my pants. "Yeah, I feel like I cracked some ribs." She spoke with a little bit of pain in her voice. They both limped their way out of the building and to the helicopter. "You think you're going to be good enough to fly?" I asked. "Well, you're in no shape either. But I'll manage, we don't really need to go get our jeep since we can use some of the money to get us a new one and to last us a couple months," she said before continuing, "we can just use this to go home we didn't really fly that long compared to what we used to do. And when we need to refuel we can just get them to come get it."
We smiled then painfully got into the chopper before getting settled and flying off to our warehouse home.
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