Ascension (32 page)

Feeling nauseous, and with his head spinning, he peered down at his forearm. The spider's bite had festered and become inflamed with a red and green colouring, and his entire arm throbbed as if he were about to suffer a stroke. Then there was the powder, smelling of sulphur, and eating its way through the material of his vest.

“I wouldn't fret,” said the horned Corrupted. “For as the poison courses through your veins, you'll quickly become desensitised and will not feel any further pain. Only then, shall my children feed.”

Although Lance believed it natural to be frightened by her words, there was something else at the back of his mind that bothered him. He felt the pulsating and surging of his own energy from deep within; a sensation he had not felt for a long time.

“Lance, you mustn't…,” he heard his brother cry. “If you were to lose control, then no one would survive.”

“I'm well aware of that. But along with the pain, and the cries of our fellow operatives…, I'm straining to sustain control over it.”

“What on earth are you blabbering on about?” The horned Corrupted demanded.

With his laboured breathing, and the screams of his colleague's ringing in his ears, Lance snow focused his attention on something that would provide him a distraction from the pain, and the deep-seated impulses. He first looked at the horned Corrupted and her winged pet – the moth-like spider was now perched on her outstretched arm as if it were a parrot. The creature made him feel sick and he averted his gaze. He stared with awe at his little brother and the water guardian; for they appeared stoic and at peace before him, despite this grim situation. This brought him relief, for he believed his brother had a plan.

“How can you tolerate such pain? Why must you resist from giving me my satisfaction?” The Corrupted whined. “At least give a challenge. Look around you: your colleagues continue to suffer, powerless to prevent their sad and miserable fate. Yet you remain so relaxed and reserved, as though you've some method that will easily defeat me. Well? Tell me the reason for such misguided confidence!”

“So little brother, have you any idea how we might get ourselves out of this mess?”

Despite the noticeable wounds and bite marks about his body, Blake turned to Lance with a cheeky smirk on his face. “I take it that you haven't? This is why you should have stayed behind.”

Feeling faint, Lance let out a weak laugh. “Still far too arrogant I see. But I guess you're never going to change.”

He noticed the horned Corrupted pout. “I sense that neither of you have yet fully comprehended the severity of your situation….”

“I have a question for you…, before the poison takes its full effect. What have you done with the Senator and her guardian?” Blake asked the Corrupted

The Corrupted sighed, raising a pointed finger toward the ceiling. “I'm astounded you haven't them yet.”

Lance looked up at the gymnasium's roof; there the Senator was encased above him within a cocoon crafted from a tar-like sludge. And there was Kishar, the small sprite squirming at her side, desperately gnawing away at the blubbery slime, trying to break free.

She stroked her finger along a strand of webbing. “As for the other woman…, she is my brother's captive. If you were to somehow defeat me, there might still be a sliver of hope of you getting to her before daybreak.”

“And what happens at daybreak?” Lance asked.

The Corrupted collected the woven threads in her palm and weaved them into a whip. “Why, the game is over of course, and you'll all be dead.”

Blake yawned, and nodded at Kulullu. “That's more than enough time. But I guess there's no time like the present to trial this new technique we've been working on.”

Lance realised that Kulullu had generated a pool of water in her free palm. He watched as the oily scales along her arms swelled and dampened with a concentrated build-up of water. This achieved, and with Blake simultaneously channelling his own element, jagged and rigid layers of ice to abruptly protrude out of the water spirit's soaked arms. The spirit instantly began to slice through the thick strands of webbing as if her arms were scissors on paper, and she flung a cluster of frozen needles from the end of her fingertips toward the Corrupted's pet; piercing the creature with an oozing gurgle.

The horned Corrupted shrieked, cradling the sickly arachnid; its wings and body penetrated with shards of ice. “What have you done? You will pay for this with your lives…, you will all pay. I swear it!”

As she continued to curse, the distraught Corrupted summoned up a wave of her spiders to focus upon the water guardian. But Kulullu was not to be found wanting; for she slashed at the spiders, blasted many of them away with the full potency of her element, and set about tearing the other operatives free from their bindings. Once they were able, the other operatives staggered forward with their weapons pointed and encircled the grieving Corrupted.

Paying them little heed, and with the Corrupted's attention having yet to waver from the limp body and crinkled wings of her pet, Lance barked the order for the operatives to open fire. An immense barrage of ammunition poured down on the Corrupted. With each bullet that hit its target, numerous insects fell from the Corrupted's body, littering the gymnasium floor with their carcases. Eventually, when no more response came from the Corrupted, Lance signalled for the operatives to ceasefire. Only when the operatives had followed his order and stopped shooting, did the Corrupted step forward – fully immersed in a wall of her swarm.

“Fire at will,” Lance cried.

But as soon as they'd reloaded, the swarm had dispersed in all directions about the gymnasium. Aside from what still lingered of her swarm, Lance couldn't find any semblance of the Corrupted that remained.

He fell to his knees, clasping at his wrist. “Where'd she go…?”

“Not far…,” said Blake, as he pointed upward to an array of insects amalgamating above them.

Amidst the growing collection of insects, a noticeable number separated and assumed the Corrupted's womanly shape. The horned Corrupted now reformed, rushed toward Blake and flooded the room with her forever-increasing offspring.

Lance, and also those few operatives who could still fight, immediately responded by retrieving the plasma grenades from their belts and detonated them upon the evolving swarm. The Corrupted let out a shrill cry of rage as she charged back toward the operatives while brandishing a webbed whip. She struck at Lance and the operatives, dislodging a number of guns and grenades from their grasp, before she crashed through them and submerged herself within the remains of her swarm.

Before long, the level of insects rose and were soon crawling, writhing, and creeping about their waistlines. Lance peered down at the pool of insects; his senses consumed by the itchiness of their touch, the pinching of their stingers and teeth, and the mixing of both the vile and sweet odours emanating their numerous toxins. But soon enough, and as the Corrupted had promised, he'd grown numb and could no longer feel anything. But then he suddenly remembered…

“Blake, amongst this swarm, are some capable of paralysis,” he warned, as he was fast finding any movement impossible.

Blake scowled, and for the first time his confidence appeared to wane. “Why didn't you warn me of this before?”

By now, so rapidly had the gymnasium filled with this Corrupted's offspring that the operatives found themselves fighting through the tide to keep their heads above the surface. Now that Lance found himself barely able to hang on, having on numerous occasions come close to being fully submerged beneath the waves of insects, the flow of his energy discharged from the pores of his skin, and he envisioned the entire swarm engulfed within a thunderous tempest.

“I have let you all live long enough,” the Corrupted screamed, as Lance could feel the insects clawing at his face. “This is where it ends; my children shall finally have their feast.”

No, I mustn't…, for if I do…, I'll kill them all,”
He was forced to remind himself.
But what should I do?

With what little sight he had, Lance glanced over to where he'd last seen Blake; but the young Indigo was nowhere to be seen.

“Blake,” he cried, fearing his brother was lost.

The water spirit promptly hoisted Blake through the sea of insects and back toward the surface. “I've got him.”

But any relief he'd received was short lived; for the head of this horned Corrupted had risen from the swarm, and now tore toward Blake and Kulullu as if she were the fin of a shark.

I've got it, but this may be our last chance…,
he quickly realised, and not a moment too soon, as he'd caught sight of what he believed to be their only hope.

Deciding to make use of his limited telekinetic talents, he closed his eyes and focused his mind. With what little energy he still possessed, Lance wrestled free a plasma grenade from his belt and hurled it toward the ceiling.

He guided the plasma grenade upward and into where a couple of sprinklers were placed. “Blake, this is it.”

The grenade detonated and the pipes in the ceiling burst, showering them below in a stream of cold water. And Blake did not disappoint; for once the gymnasium had filled with enough water for Kulullu to use her element effectively, Blake seized the opportunity provided and froze the tide of insects within a firm sheet of solid ice.

Blake beamed at his older brother with pride. “It worked better than I could ever have expected.”

For whether he intended it or not, Blake had never before fused his own element with so much water.

As he stood there shivering, Lance scanned about in search of the horned Corrupted. It wasn't long before he found her, or at least what was left of her; for her head now lay unmoving atop the ice's glassy surface.

“You've done well, I'm proud of you little brother,” he shivered, his breath hanging in the air. “But now we need to do something about breaking ourselves free from this ice.”

Once the ice had slightly thawed, Kulullu thrust down with her elbow and broke herself free. She moved to help the operatives around her, giving them enough freedom so they could chip away at the rest. Lance saw this as no easy task. Despite his ailing body and the other wounded operatives, his thoughts were preoccupied with concern about whether this Corrupted might somehow revive if they were to thaw too much ice and disturb too many of these frozen insects.

Thinking he'd avoided this risk, he carefully slid his way through the ice. It was agonizing for him to stand. He then carefully positioned himself beneath the Senator bound above. At this point, Kulullu had sprung toward the ceiling and had started slashing at the black sludge with her arms to free both Margaret and Kishar from the filthy tar. Margaret eventually plummeted toward the icy floor, and Lance had to dive to protect her head prior to impact. As for Kishar, the spirit alive with new-found energy, floated smoothly down to the icy surface and went about stamping on any insects that had survived.

When all operatives were free, Lance knew that a quick decision needed to be made about what was to be done with the Corrupted's remains. He noticed the Corrupted's head now seemed to have partially thawed. Sadly, it wasn't long before his fear that she might somehow become resurrected came to fruition.

The bodiless head of the Corrupted cursed them. “Do not think you've won just yet.”

Her head appeared to violently bulge and burst open, becoming replaced with a new spawn of insects.

With her swarm sufficiently replenished, the Corrupted's head soon reformed and arose into the air. She charged toward Blake. Lance looked on as Blake sought to grasp for a plasma grenade. But as his brother failed to grasp one in time, Lance launched himself forward and pushed his brother out of harm's way. Within the same motion, and clutching a grenade of his own, Lance thrust his arm inside the swarm. He pressed his thumb at its centre, and the grenade exploded.

The blast of the grenade rang in his ears, and he was blinded by the soot left behind by the smouldering insects. But he could also feel the cold clamp of a frozen covering about his arm around where he'd let go of the grenade. He quickly realised that Blake had saved his arm from the explosion by encasing it in a thick coating of ice.

“That was a close one…,” he mumbled, as the smoke cleared and he staggered to his feet.

Blake admonished him, his nose scrunched. “What were you thinking? You could have lost your arm.”

“I did what I thought was necessary,” he replied, praying that Walter had an antidote for this poison: his legs were now like jelly and his eyes had begun to sting.

“Is it over?” He heard one of the other operatives ask.

“It's over,” Blake assured the operative in his stead, pointing to where a single insect lay squirming in the cold water.

For a short while longer, the insect discharged of a faint glow. But this speck of light eventually dimmed, and the insect faded from sight.

“That insect served as the Corrupted's nucleus. Her very life force… I could see this particular insect flickering within the red of her eyes…,” Blake explained, before collapsing in a heap against the slippery ice.

“My master needs urgent medical attention,” Kulullu told Lance, as she scooped up Blake in her arms. “I shall go it alone from here and rescue Ms Hawthorne.”

“I must insist that you all immediately return for treatment,” Walter's muffled voice ordered from Lance's waterlogged communicator. “And you're running out of time. I need to address those afflictions as soon as possible.”

Lance winced, the taste of blood in his mouth. “I don't think any of us have much choice. We need to find an antidote, and fast.”

“You can leave that to me,” Walter affirmed. “But you must hurry.”

No one argued with Walter, least of all Kulullu, and with an unconscious Blake in her arms, she hobbled for the gymnasiums nearest exit.