GuNNhead

Hovering above the flowing water, I silently follow the creature and their captive until a door is shut and locked behind them. I press my hand against the large metal hatch and know that if I concentrate and focus my powers, I will be able to manipulate the locking mechanism. I smash the door in, and lunge at the creature, grabbing the woman away from it with one arm, kicking it into a wall. I continue to pummel the creature around the space, smashing it into furniture and appliances before I am halted by the woman screaming once again. She is struggling against me, and so I drop her. She collapses in a heap and crawls over the creature, shielding it from my assault. She explains that it is innocent, and was once human, and was helping her after one of the rat-monsters damaged her leg. I observe that it is reptilian, and notice my surrounding are quite residential. Not at all like the sort of nest I would expect from those mindless beasts.

She had continued speaking while I was making my observations, and was able to say that she was a reporter who befriended numerous mutates that dwell down here while attempting to help this one, with which she had a prior connection – before I stop her, informing her that I do not care about sentient, helpful mutants. I only care about the murderous ones.

Instead of telling me exactly where their nest is so that I may obliterate them, she speaks of their previous nest, much deeper within the city’s substructure. That they had only recently relocated, but no-one has gone down far enough to find out why, and finally that the mutates will be back shortly, having conglomerated allies to discern a strategy. I stop her again as she had began to describe their allies, and I directly ask where the new nest is. Finally the information I need is given to me. It is followed up with requests for patience and too many sentences beginning with “but” as I walk out of their abode.

I slaughter scores of the creatures making my way towards the nest, their numbers increasing as I get closer. My Gravity Blades now easily slicing through bone once more. Before long I arrive at the tunnel’s egress. Water flows past me and cascades downward, joining hundreds of others in a massive drainage pool at the bottom. Dozens of the creatures crawl about the walls and ceiling, but I see a large group of them all huddled together off to the side on a large platform. I charge two Gravity Spheres, enough to eradicate the vast majority of them without too much structural damage, and fire. Both connect perfectly, exploding blood and bone, painting the wall. However, it seems my target was not quite what I thought it was, it was not a group of these creatures, but a massive undulating mass that spawns them. Before I am able to charge more attacks, I am pushed out of the egress by a wave of these beasts, and fall into the whirlpool below. Nearly pulled into the grinding filter beneath, I fly up and out of the water, once again taking aim at my target. Creatures leap from the walls and latch onto me, preventing me from firing another volley at their progenitor until it strikes me, slamming me into the wall, and grabs me with its recursive hand of hands and fingers. As it brings me over its mouths I cut myself free, kicking it, and back flipping onto its platform. I tear open my chest, and charge for a flash-burst of the Quantum Destroyer. After a brief moment, I fire, completely enveloping the creature, vaporizing it. With only minimal damage to the wall behind it.

I turn, prepared to deal with the remnants, but see only the reporter and a few small groups of mutants of various animal species. They rush towards me and thank me for saving their homes from that threat, but continue speaking, boasting of aiding me by fighting the beasts so that I had time to charge my final attack; wondering aloud as to the reason behind the creature’s recent relocation. As I begin to leave they directly ask me if I am also curious as to the cause. I tell them that I care neither for the reasoning of thinking and unthinking creatures alike, and take my exit through the tunnels.

Over the following nights I deal with the threats that emerge from Techrider’s absence largely on my own, I even patrol the city. In doing so I discover that this city has its fair share of vigilantes spread across the grid split from fractured factions. One aided my return to normal size after I was shrunken by one of their nemeses. Another transformed by the moon’s light, and yet another still tracked down a petty thief who used holographic hard-light cubes to disguise their exploits. One night I am standing solitary in the penthouse office in the center of the downtown core plotting a path to transverse the city. I watch the rain run up the window in random patterns. Manual repairs upon my craft are complete, all the pieces are assembled in the correct order, but still weeks remain upon the countdown. Only other options besides waiting it out is to fully disassemble and try again. At least it is still counting down. So, here I wait, so that I may optimally kill. It is so pointless to expend my energy on these benign beings in my current state. They will all die with time.

One of them enters the room. They begin talking about a string of murders and disappearances. A monster still on the loose. They ask me to get off of the ceiling and to allow the rain to flow normally, as it is disconcerting to them. I oblige. They continued that there was a hope and plan that either the Techrider would be on the trail of the murderer, or that The Angel could have taken care of this, but since both are not able, the request falls to me. The last time the City Security Forces encountered whatever this is, their vehicle was torn in half, and what they found of their bodies did not fare much better.

We take the elevator down to the sublab to observe the camera feeds and discuss a plan. There are more diagnostic screens of my craft, but with nothing to diagnose, they’re now showing additional city monitoring. I study the shadows of the city while I am informed of the ongoing patterns.

Leaving the tower, my route covers the main locations where bodies have been found, plus last known locations, all combined with security’s reports on their own losses. I stand on a wall near the ground and observe. Six or six hundred stories makes little difference when I see them going about their lives, it is all so infinitesimal, so pointless. Dominoes pushed by fate, conscious only to experience the fall, and believe they are the driving force of it. In their deaths, only a fraction of an avalanche of consequence set forth at the beginning of time. Time that will end. It always ends.

A scream emanating from a darkened alley sets my course in action, running along the wall I see some creature, captive in tow, dart down an open manhole. Not wasting a second, I leap in after it. The familiar feel of bones breaking beneath my heel cushions my landing. I cannot quite make out what it is under a foot of water as the rain from above splashed in a circle around me. Luckily, I do not need to ponder long, as I am immediately besieged by two other ones, offering up a much better look at their rodent-like appearance as they bite and slash at me. But I have already uncovered one of their weaknesses.

I grab them by their throats, and compress them against the steel side of the storm overflow tunnel. As the spines shatter, I hear the scream again. Turning towards the source, I see the figure turn off into a side tunnel. Dropping the limp corpses, I give chase.