Chapter 8 Part 2
Agras had thrown the cocoon back down the shaft to SPECTR angrily, retracting the claws back into their legs, they sighed heavily and with an extreme irritation as they realised the dull throbbing pain in the leg that had been shot.
Doble sat quietly next to Agras whose breathing was still heavy and erratic when Agras raised one of their legs and poked Doble in the side.
“What was that for?” Doble asked a little offended.
“We’re corporeal Doble” Agras stated bluntly to the canine.
Doble looked around and saw a orange cone on the floor, presumably used to make the perimeter around the hole leading down to SPECTR. They walked up to it grabbing it in their mouth and bought it back to Agras, Doble eyed the cone nervously, reaching out with their paw focusing their will on being incorporeal, Doble had expected his paw to pass straight through but to their surprise Dobles paw collided with the cone knocking it over
Agras sighed again before asking. “What the hell is going on Doble, they could see us and now we’re solid... It doesn’t make any sense”
Doble mulled the issue over in their head, trying to think of what could have done this. In their mind it could have been anything, for one thing, they had been out in the human world longer than any other corrupted had been in the last few millennia. But somehow Doble doubted that was it, thinking back to the moments before the explosion and the moments after it, the answer hit him. That brief moment of exposure to the radiation from the Asonox power module must have done it, after all the power modules worked by bringing energy that is out of sync and incorporeal in the human world into full solid form and converting it to useable energy.
For a moment Doble wondered why they remembered such intricate knowledge of the technology before answering Agras explaining it had to be the power module that had done this.
Agras seemed to consider this for a while and seemingly accepting Dobles conclusion asked.
“So what should we do next?
“I think we should return to Nos and request orders” Doble replied in an as matter of fact sort of way.
Agras nodded subtly and waited for Doble to open a rift.
Doble began to howl again but in a very different tone, it was a very low pitch, debris on the floor around them vibrated slightly in response to the low rumbling tone but nothing happened, Doble looked around confused and began to try again focusing all their will on trying to open a rift, again nothing happened.
They looked at Agras worried.
“Okay... this might be an issue...” Doble said
“We can’t get back? Is this because of that cursed power module too?” Agras asked wearily.
“It has to be... it’s altered everything about us.. My howl can’t penetrate the wall because we’re out of sync with Nos because of it” Doble replied disappointedly.
Neither corrupted now knew what to do with themselves, trapped in the human world, visible and even killable to humans, this was something that neither of them had ever considered.
Both had begun an internal war in their minds, Agras whose mind was slowly being unravelled into a medley of carnage hatred and destruction and Doble whose mind was slowly being reformed, into what they didn’t know.
Wondering quietly to themselves, Doble pondered on what they should do next, they couldn’t get back and now they had to be very careful in the human world, they thought to themselves that they should continue the work that they had been sent to do and catch up with the Asonox... wherever they might be and stop them from getting the final requirements for an audience with the Spardan King.
Doble suggested his idea to Agras who hastily agreed, they began to set off for nowhere in particular when the ground began to shake violently cracks shooting towards them, jumping swiftly out of the way the chunks of ground removed by the crack shot back down the shaft, tearing it open wider.
“What the hell is that?” Agras roared over the din made by the cracking ground.
“Remember when I said we were out of sync with Nos to actually make a rift back?? Well we weren’t out of sync with the slip rift they used... the explosion must have kept it open and my howl has made it active..I very much suggest running now” Doble shouted back sprinting away from the shaft.
Agras followed suit scuttling hurriedly with Doble, the ground beneath them was literally giving way, for the brief moment that Agras dared to look down they could see the labyrinth like mess of corridors of SPECTR snaking away at earth, the corridors nearest the slip rift had began to collapse and were swirling around the rift like water going down a plug hole.
The hole leading to the surface had increased tenfold, devouring everything in its path, the buildings and shops in the town surrendered to its presence crumbling into the swirling mass.
Agras and Doble were desperately jumping from each chunk of loosening rubble to the other trying to escape when a bus that had been sucked in hit Agras square on knocking her backwards taking Doble with them.
They tumbled backwards on the bus, they were directly above the gaping maw of the rift now, the only thing stopping them from falling in was the bus which was too wide to be swallowed but even that had begun to buckle, the sound of metal squealing and contorting filled the air as the rift consumed everything around it.
Agras a little dazed looked down at the shuddering bus, they were now deep underground, back where they had started in fact, they looked up the sloping whirlpool of concrete and earth, there was no way that they could climb that, but they might still be able to swing out of it.
Agras grabbed Doble with one of their spare legs, raising 4 other legs they shout out a wave of webbing which clawed on to ground a few hundred feet above them, the bus beneath them gave a final protesting squeal as it buckled and was snapped in two and swallowed in a loud gurgling echo.
Agras tried to climb up their webbing, but the force of the rift was pulling at them aggressively refusing to withdraw its hold upon them. It wouldn’t have done them any good either way, the ground that Agras’ webbing was attached to had just begun to crumble, the two corrupted were flung back with such velocity that they got separated and were carelessly added to the swirling vortex.
Pressed against the rubble Doble could see the rift right beneath them, Agras had been chucked a lot higher up than Doble had so would have a little time before being sent in.
Agras could barely make out the shape of Doble just before they got sucked in to the rift with a loud almost amusing pop; the last thing they saw of Doble was them trying to climb out of the maw of the rift hopelessly.
Agras wasn’t concerned by what was happening, no that was a lie, they were concerned, but not because they were about to get sucked down into the rift with no idea of what might happen when that happened, but because they weren’t worried about it at all, the fact that Agras was almost amused by this turn of events is what gravely concerned them.
Doble felt the sensation of not having form as they were flung through the rift, ideas and notions were swirling through their mind, images and faces that they could not place popped in and out vision before they were violently flung out of the rift.
Doble landing was cushioned by soft grass but still the impact wasn’t exactly without pain. Looking up Doble saw that they had been deposited in a forested field, musing to himself that without the Asonox terminals and power modules directing the rift, the rift would now chuck out its occupants anywhere.
Waiting expectantly for Agras to be thrown our Doble sat in the grass, slits of sunlight permeating the canopy of leaves warming their now corporeal body, they sat in that place for what must have been an hour before accepting the fact that Agras wasn’t coming.
Back at the maw of the rift, Agras swirled down into rift and with another large pop they were consumed.
With an explosive groan, the rift exploded outwards sending out a blast wave of rubble wiping out everything within a 3 mile radius before finally dying leaving nothing behind it except for a crater.
Agras was jettisoned from the rift in a much different place than Doble, there were no lush green trees or fields surrounding them, they were greeted instead by a arid dusty canyon and a curious scorpion looking scuttling at their feet, flinging the distant cousin away from themselves Agras took in their surroundings.
The mysterious voice returned cooing inside their head.
“Oh look at what’s happened now Agras... He planned this.. that Doble... they opened the rift to separate you... and now you’re here all alone with no one but me to keep you company... Let me explain some things to you, you’re nothing and will always be nothing, that’s why Doble left you, that’s why everyone will leave you. So.. What are you going to do about it Agras?”
Raising their head to the sky Agras screamed out at the top of their lungs.
“Shut the hell up and leave me alone!!!”
Agras scuttled away alone in the canyon, their cries echoing along with them the voice whispering in their ear constantly.
Doble still sat in the forest letting the sun spill over their body; it was interesting how good it felt to them. The soft ground beneath them was refreshing, such a drastic change to the environment of Nos, with an almost tangible twang of guilt, Doble realised that they weren’t that beat up about not being able to get back to Nos, the gentle breeze rustling their fur, the sun basking them in warmth... why would they ever want to go back?
The new sensations that Doble now felt were exhilarating, as a corrupted, there wasn’t a whole variety of feelings that they could express apart from crush kill destroy but now Doble had experienced concern, fear, pleasure and these feelings also trigged another feeling, terror.
This metamorphosis was creating a duality at their very core; a sort of duality that they feared would rip them apart leaving some sort of ... god knows what behind in its wake.
Doble bitterly thought that this was just typical that it would happen to one of their clan, if the corrupted back in Nos learned of the changes happening within Doble right now, the clan would probably get treated with more mistrust and dislike than usual.
Doble wondered briefly where Agras had been ejected to and if they were experiencing any other changes, Doble feared that Agras would become a huge issue if they did start to change; they were already unstable enough as it was. The thought of a more psychotic Agras troubled Doble, it troubled them deeply.
If Agras was to go in meltdown, Doble thought to themselves that they were very glad that they were ejected from the rift here and not with Agras who could quite easily crush him, they mulled the idea over remembering that Agras had actually tried to save them, which normally would have made Doble think that they were being stupid, but considering Agras’ personality and outspoken desire of casually terminating other corrupted, Doble was convinced that Agras was indeed becoming unhinged.
Sighing slightly, shuddering at the thought of Agras appearing, Doble stood up, stretching, enjoying the sensation of stretching they held it for a while before padding off slowly through the forested field, trying to decide what to do next unaware of the fact that they were being watched.
Back in the secondary SPECTR base, the female colonel was standing with another soldier in a observation room watching over a closed circuit feed of the infirmary.
The colonel watched the feed uneasily, taking note of the sleeping Jonas with Kess on a bed next to his side and the now stabilised Jake with Seth on the next bed over.
She wondered to herself how these two kids could have destroyed SPECTR, she whispered under her breath.
“How did you do it?”
The other soldier eyed his commanding officer with concern.
“Colonel Taylor do you really think that those two managed to infiltrate and then destroy SPECTR HQ?” He asked in a deep monotone voice
Colonel Taylor ran her hand through her short yet still distinctly feminine auburn hair, she sighed lightly thinking carefully.
“We need to wait on the technicians to get us up to speed.” She replied softly.
There was a loud knocking on the door, the soldier with the colonel walked over the door opening it, standing outside was another member of SPECTR personnel, a scientist, they waited for the colonel to give them her attention.
Colonel Taylor turned to the scientist.
“Is she ready?” The colonel asked at once.
The scientist nodded adding. “Yes all stats are in the green, she’s ready to go.”
The soldier looked a little confused and asked the colonel.
“What does that mean?” He drawled in his monotone voice.
Colonel Taylor smiled.
“It means we’re getting answers.” She replied and without any warning she briskly shot out of the door with the scientist.
Doble sat quietly next to Agras whose breathing was still heavy and erratic when Agras raised one of their legs and poked Doble in the side.
“What was that for?” Doble asked a little offended.
“We’re corporeal Doble” Agras stated bluntly to the canine.
Doble looked around and saw a orange cone on the floor, presumably used to make the perimeter around the hole leading down to SPECTR. They walked up to it grabbing it in their mouth and bought it back to Agras, Doble eyed the cone nervously, reaching out with their paw focusing their will on being incorporeal, Doble had expected his paw to pass straight through but to their surprise Dobles paw collided with the cone knocking it over
Agras sighed again before asking. “What the hell is going on Doble, they could see us and now we’re solid... It doesn’t make any sense”
Doble mulled the issue over in their head, trying to think of what could have done this. In their mind it could have been anything, for one thing, they had been out in the human world longer than any other corrupted had been in the last few millennia. But somehow Doble doubted that was it, thinking back to the moments before the explosion and the moments after it, the answer hit him. That brief moment of exposure to the radiation from the Asonox power module must have done it, after all the power modules worked by bringing energy that is out of sync and incorporeal in the human world into full solid form and converting it to useable energy.
For a moment Doble wondered why they remembered such intricate knowledge of the technology before answering Agras explaining it had to be the power module that had done this.
Agras seemed to consider this for a while and seemingly accepting Dobles conclusion asked.
“So what should we do next?
“I think we should return to Nos and request orders” Doble replied in an as matter of fact sort of way.
Agras nodded subtly and waited for Doble to open a rift.
Doble began to howl again but in a very different tone, it was a very low pitch, debris on the floor around them vibrated slightly in response to the low rumbling tone but nothing happened, Doble looked around confused and began to try again focusing all their will on trying to open a rift, again nothing happened.
They looked at Agras worried.
“Okay... this might be an issue...” Doble said
“We can’t get back? Is this because of that cursed power module too?” Agras asked wearily.
“It has to be... it’s altered everything about us.. My howl can’t penetrate the wall because we’re out of sync with Nos because of it” Doble replied disappointedly.
Neither corrupted now knew what to do with themselves, trapped in the human world, visible and even killable to humans, this was something that neither of them had ever considered.
Both had begun an internal war in their minds, Agras whose mind was slowly being unravelled into a medley of carnage hatred and destruction and Doble whose mind was slowly being reformed, into what they didn’t know.
Wondering quietly to themselves, Doble pondered on what they should do next, they couldn’t get back and now they had to be very careful in the human world, they thought to themselves that they should continue the work that they had been sent to do and catch up with the Asonox... wherever they might be and stop them from getting the final requirements for an audience with the Spardan King.
Doble suggested his idea to Agras who hastily agreed, they began to set off for nowhere in particular when the ground began to shake violently cracks shooting towards them, jumping swiftly out of the way the chunks of ground removed by the crack shot back down the shaft, tearing it open wider.
“What the hell is that?” Agras roared over the din made by the cracking ground.
“Remember when I said we were out of sync with Nos to actually make a rift back?? Well we weren’t out of sync with the slip rift they used... the explosion must have kept it open and my howl has made it active..I very much suggest running now” Doble shouted back sprinting away from the shaft.
Agras followed suit scuttling hurriedly with Doble, the ground beneath them was literally giving way, for the brief moment that Agras dared to look down they could see the labyrinth like mess of corridors of SPECTR snaking away at earth, the corridors nearest the slip rift had began to collapse and were swirling around the rift like water going down a plug hole.
The hole leading to the surface had increased tenfold, devouring everything in its path, the buildings and shops in the town surrendered to its presence crumbling into the swirling mass.
Agras and Doble were desperately jumping from each chunk of loosening rubble to the other trying to escape when a bus that had been sucked in hit Agras square on knocking her backwards taking Doble with them.
They tumbled backwards on the bus, they were directly above the gaping maw of the rift now, the only thing stopping them from falling in was the bus which was too wide to be swallowed but even that had begun to buckle, the sound of metal squealing and contorting filled the air as the rift consumed everything around it.
Agras a little dazed looked down at the shuddering bus, they were now deep underground, back where they had started in fact, they looked up the sloping whirlpool of concrete and earth, there was no way that they could climb that, but they might still be able to swing out of it.
Agras grabbed Doble with one of their spare legs, raising 4 other legs they shout out a wave of webbing which clawed on to ground a few hundred feet above them, the bus beneath them gave a final protesting squeal as it buckled and was snapped in two and swallowed in a loud gurgling echo.
Agras tried to climb up their webbing, but the force of the rift was pulling at them aggressively refusing to withdraw its hold upon them. It wouldn’t have done them any good either way, the ground that Agras’ webbing was attached to had just begun to crumble, the two corrupted were flung back with such velocity that they got separated and were carelessly added to the swirling vortex.
Pressed against the rubble Doble could see the rift right beneath them, Agras had been chucked a lot higher up than Doble had so would have a little time before being sent in.
Agras could barely make out the shape of Doble just before they got sucked in to the rift with a loud almost amusing pop; the last thing they saw of Doble was them trying to climb out of the maw of the rift hopelessly.
Agras wasn’t concerned by what was happening, no that was a lie, they were concerned, but not because they were about to get sucked down into the rift with no idea of what might happen when that happened, but because they weren’t worried about it at all, the fact that Agras was almost amused by this turn of events is what gravely concerned them.
Doble felt the sensation of not having form as they were flung through the rift, ideas and notions were swirling through their mind, images and faces that they could not place popped in and out vision before they were violently flung out of the rift.
Doble landing was cushioned by soft grass but still the impact wasn’t exactly without pain. Looking up Doble saw that they had been deposited in a forested field, musing to himself that without the Asonox terminals and power modules directing the rift, the rift would now chuck out its occupants anywhere.
Waiting expectantly for Agras to be thrown our Doble sat in the grass, slits of sunlight permeating the canopy of leaves warming their now corporeal body, they sat in that place for what must have been an hour before accepting the fact that Agras wasn’t coming.
Back at the maw of the rift, Agras swirled down into rift and with another large pop they were consumed.
With an explosive groan, the rift exploded outwards sending out a blast wave of rubble wiping out everything within a 3 mile radius before finally dying leaving nothing behind it except for a crater.
Agras was jettisoned from the rift in a much different place than Doble, there were no lush green trees or fields surrounding them, they were greeted instead by a arid dusty canyon and a curious scorpion looking scuttling at their feet, flinging the distant cousin away from themselves Agras took in their surroundings.
The mysterious voice returned cooing inside their head.
“Oh look at what’s happened now Agras... He planned this.. that Doble... they opened the rift to separate you... and now you’re here all alone with no one but me to keep you company... Let me explain some things to you, you’re nothing and will always be nothing, that’s why Doble left you, that’s why everyone will leave you. So.. What are you going to do about it Agras?”
Raising their head to the sky Agras screamed out at the top of their lungs.
“Shut the hell up and leave me alone!!!”
Agras scuttled away alone in the canyon, their cries echoing along with them the voice whispering in their ear constantly.
Doble still sat in the forest letting the sun spill over their body; it was interesting how good it felt to them. The soft ground beneath them was refreshing, such a drastic change to the environment of Nos, with an almost tangible twang of guilt, Doble realised that they weren’t that beat up about not being able to get back to Nos, the gentle breeze rustling their fur, the sun basking them in warmth... why would they ever want to go back?
The new sensations that Doble now felt were exhilarating, as a corrupted, there wasn’t a whole variety of feelings that they could express apart from crush kill destroy but now Doble had experienced concern, fear, pleasure and these feelings also trigged another feeling, terror.
This metamorphosis was creating a duality at their very core; a sort of duality that they feared would rip them apart leaving some sort of ... god knows what behind in its wake.
Doble bitterly thought that this was just typical that it would happen to one of their clan, if the corrupted back in Nos learned of the changes happening within Doble right now, the clan would probably get treated with more mistrust and dislike than usual.
Doble wondered briefly where Agras had been ejected to and if they were experiencing any other changes, Doble feared that Agras would become a huge issue if they did start to change; they were already unstable enough as it was. The thought of a more psychotic Agras troubled Doble, it troubled them deeply.
If Agras was to go in meltdown, Doble thought to themselves that they were very glad that they were ejected from the rift here and not with Agras who could quite easily crush him, they mulled the idea over remembering that Agras had actually tried to save them, which normally would have made Doble think that they were being stupid, but considering Agras’ personality and outspoken desire of casually terminating other corrupted, Doble was convinced that Agras was indeed becoming unhinged.
Sighing slightly, shuddering at the thought of Agras appearing, Doble stood up, stretching, enjoying the sensation of stretching they held it for a while before padding off slowly through the forested field, trying to decide what to do next unaware of the fact that they were being watched.
Back in the secondary SPECTR base, the female colonel was standing with another soldier in a observation room watching over a closed circuit feed of the infirmary.
The colonel watched the feed uneasily, taking note of the sleeping Jonas with Kess on a bed next to his side and the now stabilised Jake with Seth on the next bed over.
She wondered to herself how these two kids could have destroyed SPECTR, she whispered under her breath.
“How did you do it?”
The other soldier eyed his commanding officer with concern.
“Colonel Taylor do you really think that those two managed to infiltrate and then destroy SPECTR HQ?” He asked in a deep monotone voice
Colonel Taylor ran her hand through her short yet still distinctly feminine auburn hair, she sighed lightly thinking carefully.
“We need to wait on the technicians to get us up to speed.” She replied softly.
There was a loud knocking on the door, the soldier with the colonel walked over the door opening it, standing outside was another member of SPECTR personnel, a scientist, they waited for the colonel to give them her attention.
Colonel Taylor turned to the scientist.
“Is she ready?” The colonel asked at once.
The scientist nodded adding. “Yes all stats are in the green, she’s ready to go.”
The soldier looked a little confused and asked the colonel.
“What does that mean?” He drawled in his monotone voice.
Colonel Taylor smiled.
“It means we’re getting answers.” She replied and without any warning she briskly shot out of the door with the scientist.