Alone. He was alone, and it was his own fault. The townspeople were gone, the plants were gone... Fletcher knew all of this even though he was nowhere near a position where he could see them. He was sitting in a corner of his and Russel's laboratory, the one that in reality, had been destroyed nearly a year ago. But it was here now, and he was there, the tables and windowsills lined with potted plants, beakers, microscopes, vials of a deep red liquid, and the brothers' notes, the papers detailing their research and methods for completing their father's work. Their methods for destroying a village.
The image was seared into his mind's eye. The gas had leaked up from underground and overtaken the town overnight, and though he hadn't even gone outside, somehow he could still clearly see the people he'd hurt. He could see them coughing and gasping for air. Coughing up blood and then choking on it. And the worst part of all was that it wasn't just the townspeople he remembered from home. The other members of Stacy's crew were there. Tess was there, and Vivio, and all the other children he'd met. Captain Kirk, and Kang, and even people he only knew by name and reputation. All of them had suffered a painful death because Fletcher had been too weak to stop it.
And even Russel. He'd gone down to the spring not long ago to seal it off. Fletcher, coward that he was, had remained here in this corner, curled up on himself. And he knew that Russel, too, had been taken. He'd heard the coughing and gasping somehow even from here. And then, even worse, the sound of the coughing had stopped, and Russel was gone. All his fault. All of it was Fletcher's fault.
The gas was still rising upward, and soon, it would reach him here on the third floor of the mansion. He didn't even question how he knew it to be true; it was going to happen, and that was what mattered. Soon he'd be like the rest, coughing until he'd want to rip his own throat out, before mercifully falling unconscious. Fletcher whimpered and buried his face in his knees. He didn't want to die, but someone like him deserved no less.
There is a very important childhood rule that Sherry has never broken in her entire, admittedly short, life.
It hurts more if you look at it. It's true, though, and she knows it, which is why she's trying very, very hard not to look at her friends as they mutate and change. Yuri and Roxie are the first, and it's terrible to hear the sound of muscles tearing, ligaments popping and bones cracking as they change. Yuri screams, screams like a banshee, but Roxie is quiet. Blank. Accepting of it, like it was just another thing she needed to do.
"Why aren't you helping us?!" Vega growls as his face begins to melt. Yuri continues to scream over him until her voice is suddenly cut off with a gurgle and a hail of gunfire. "Do something! Your parents are going to kill us! We didn't do anything wrong! Sherry! Sherry, help!"
"Can't look. Can't look. Can't look. Can't look," Sherry mumbles and looks up. But there isn't any relief there, either. Because Fletcher is slowly, slowly, slowly creeping down towards her. Or at least, what's left of Fletcher: a tuft of blond hair on a still-human/arachnid face. His eight legs tap-tap-tap on the wall as he creeps, his mandibles click at her.
Sherry's legs buckle and she slides to the floor, and she covers her eyes as Fletcher gets closer.
Asuka stood in a dark wood, utterly and completely confused. She had her plugsuit on, but she didn't know where she was or where everyone had gone - a voice at the back of her head said that this wasn't right. She glanced up, feeling a small sense of relief - her mother was here. Everything would be alright, wouldn't it? And she could go to Arha if things got really bad. Before she could speak to her mother, before she could do anything, her mother was gone, walking off into the trees. Fear and panic shot through her, her gut churning as she realized that her mother was leaving. She ran after the fading figure of her mother, arms and legs working as she dodged through trees and undergrowth.
She couldn't keep up. Her legs were too short. She didn't have the breath. She was a small child again and she stretched out a pleading hand as the panic and fear began to rise to a fever pitch. "Mother! Don't leave me here! Mama! Mama! I need you! Don't go! Please, don't go!"
As her mother vanished into the trees, Asuka trailed to a halt staring after her as tears started to well in her eyes. This couldn't be. She turned around, hoping to find someone - anyone - there to help her. Shinji. Kaji. Misato. Aang. Arha.
"Arha?"
Her voice sounded weak and small in her ears as Asuka tried to stave off the tears, a few drops starting to roll down her face. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be somewhere safe, to be protected, held, told it would be alright, loved. "Arha?"
She was supposed to come. She'd said she would.
"Arha!" Her voice was a scream now. "Aang? Somebody! Somebody help me!"
She sank back against a tree, her usual teenage self again. She slid to the forest floor, sobbing into her gloved hands. She couldn't deal with this. She didn't want this. She didn't want to be alone. Quietly, Asuka continued to cry, her muffled sobs echoing amongst the trees.
Vega is breathing hard, his heart's hammering against his ribs and he's as keyed up as he can be. His hands, holding a pistol again like the day and night of the zombie battle, are shaking. He can hear them coming, he can hear the boots on the deck of the ship and the far off yells and (occasionally) the shots as he bites his lip. His hands tighten on the gun, his finger on the trigger is light but the rest of his grip is like a vice.
There's always been a tiny part of Vega that recognizes the danger that other members of the Backdraft Group could pose to him. Even though he never thought about it, even though it's never crossed his mind, he hasn't been entirely oblivious to the mutters and sideways glances and jealousy of other pilots. How cold some of the superiors are. He's always had Sarah to guard him.
But Sarah isn't here. And he is. And his Zoid isn't. And he's said things he shouldn't have said and he isn't at home doing his job like he needs to be so they're here and they want to take him away.
He doesn't know where to, but he knows it isn't good. He doesn't want to go. He uses his determination to push down that he's already seen them killing here. Vega's hands start quivering again. The others. His friends. The adults. He doesn't know if they're okay or not. He saw the blood and he ran.
Like... like a coward. Like a little boy. He got scared and ran away and the thought of that gives him a small surge of anger that helps steady him.
Vega narrows his eyes. It makes him more than a little bit sick and lightheaded to think about it but if they're coming for him he's going to fight them and if they're going to shoot the others, he is going to have to kill them.
He can do that.
Maybe.
No.
Maybe.
Yes.
N- yes, definitely and no more arguing!
He's decided. And so he waits for them to find him here with his back pressed against the wall, clamping down on his own fear as hard as he knows how to.
Vega quivers and bites his lip. Big boys, after all, do not cry.
Greatest hits of our last season of Yuri Otani. Don't even bother with a thin excuse of an episode to buffer the flashbacks together.
See if you recognize:
-The sickly, slimy, crawling sensation of putting Borg on her head for the first time. Little probing probiscises patted her scalp wetly. Then that ropy tongue flicked out to paint green slime across her astonished face and things went black.
-The ushigata (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/Hedgehogey/USHIGATA.gif) cornering her in the hallway after she missed her shots with the dart gun. She'd huddled behind Borg's wings as those fists slammed into their dubious protection again and again and it roared without a mouth.
-Finding Kasumi inside the Yellow Knife host (http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b142/c10dstr1f3/Sketch_h.jpg). The thing had let out a blasting quack, quaking as it died from the evisceration by Kumi's drills. Kasumi spilled out, naked and full of rage amidst the pool of green slop. That's when those soft hands with painted pink nails had closed around Kumi's neck...
-Being part of the Sunflowers again, inside their delusion. They'd convinced her mind that her friends were aliens. And aliens...well, they needed to be killed.
-Red Snout bearing down on her, lips curled back to reveal teeth like daggers, baleful eye looking at her with cold malevolence and hunger. The stench was the worst.
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The image was seared into his mind's eye. The gas had leaked up from underground and overtaken the town overnight, and though he hadn't even gone outside, somehow he could still clearly see the people he'd hurt. He could see them coughing and gasping for air. Coughing up blood and then choking on it. And the worst part of all was that it wasn't just the townspeople he remembered from home. The other members of Stacy's crew were there. Tess was there, and Vivio, and all the other children he'd met. Captain Kirk, and Kang, and even people he only knew by name and reputation. All of them had suffered a painful death because Fletcher had been too weak to stop it.
And even Russel. He'd gone down to the spring not long ago to seal it off. Fletcher, coward that he was, had remained here in this corner, curled up on himself. And he knew that Russel, too, had been taken. He'd heard the coughing and gasping somehow even from here. And then, even worse, the sound of the coughing had stopped, and Russel was gone. All his fault. All of it was Fletcher's fault.
The gas was still rising upward, and soon, it would reach him here on the third floor of the mansion. He didn't even question how he knew it to be true; it was going to happen, and that was what mattered. Soon he'd be like the rest, coughing until he'd want to rip his own throat out, before mercifully falling unconscious. Fletcher whimpered and buried his face in his knees. He didn't want to die, but someone like him deserved no less.
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It hurts more if you look at it. It's true, though, and she knows it, which is why she's trying very, very hard not to look at her friends as they mutate and change. Yuri and Roxie are the first, and it's terrible to hear the sound of muscles tearing, ligaments popping and bones cracking as they change. Yuri screams, screams like a banshee, but Roxie is quiet. Blank. Accepting of it, like it was just another thing she needed to do.
"Why aren't you helping us?!" Vega growls as his face begins to melt. Yuri continues to scream over him until her voice is suddenly cut off with a gurgle and a hail of gunfire. "Do something! Your parents are going to kill us! We didn't do anything wrong! Sherry! Sherry, help!"
"Can't look. Can't look. Can't look. Can't look," Sherry mumbles and looks up. But there isn't any relief there, either. Because Fletcher is slowly, slowly, slowly creeping down towards her. Or at least, what's left of Fletcher: a tuft of blond hair on a still-human/arachnid face. His eight legs tap-tap-tap on the wall as he creeps, his mandibles click at her.
Sherry's legs buckle and she slides to the floor, and she covers her eyes as Fletcher gets closer.
Click-click-click...
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She couldn't keep up. Her legs were too short. She didn't have the breath. She was a small child again and she stretched out a pleading hand as the panic and fear began to rise to a fever pitch. "Mother! Don't leave me here! Mama! Mama! I need you! Don't go! Please, don't go!"
As her mother vanished into the trees, Asuka trailed to a halt staring after her as tears started to well in her eyes. This couldn't be. She turned around, hoping to find someone - anyone - there to help her. Shinji. Kaji. Misato. Aang. Arha.
"Arha?"
Her voice sounded weak and small in her ears as Asuka tried to stave off the tears, a few drops starting to roll down her face. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be somewhere safe, to be protected, held, told it would be alright, loved. "Arha?"
She was supposed to come. She'd said she would.
"Arha!" Her voice was a scream now. "Aang? Somebody! Somebody help me!"
She sank back against a tree, her usual teenage self again. She slid to the forest floor, sobbing into her gloved hands. She couldn't deal with this. She didn't want this. She didn't want to be alone. Quietly, Asuka continued to cry, her muffled sobs echoing amongst the trees.
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There's always been a tiny part of Vega that recognizes the danger that other members of the Backdraft Group could pose to him. Even though he never thought about it, even though it's never crossed his mind, he hasn't been entirely oblivious to the mutters and sideways glances and jealousy of other pilots. How cold some of the superiors are. He's always had Sarah to guard him.
But Sarah isn't here. And he is. And his Zoid isn't. And he's said things he shouldn't have said and he isn't at home doing his job like he needs to be so they're here and they want to take him away.
He doesn't know where to, but he knows it isn't good. He doesn't want to go. He uses his determination to push down that he's already seen them killing here. Vega's hands start quivering again. The others. His friends. The adults. He doesn't know if they're okay or not. He saw the blood and he ran.
Like... like a coward. Like a little boy. He got scared and ran away and the thought of that gives him a small surge of anger that helps steady him.
Vega narrows his eyes. It makes him more than a little bit sick and lightheaded to think about it but if they're coming for him he's going to fight them and if they're going to shoot the others, he is going to have to kill them.
He can do that.
Maybe.
No.
Maybe.
Yes.
N- yes, definitely and no more arguing!
He's decided. And so he waits for them to find him here with his back pressed against the wall, clamping down on his own fear as hard as he knows how to.
Vega quivers and bites his lip. Big boys, after all, do not cry.
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Greatest hits of our last season of Yuri Otani. Don't even bother with a thin excuse of an episode to buffer the flashbacks together.
See if you recognize:
-The sickly, slimy, crawling sensation of putting Borg on her head for the first time. Little probing probiscises patted her scalp wetly. Then that ropy tongue flicked out to paint green slime across her astonished face and things went black.
-The ushigata (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/Hedgehogey/USHIGATA.gif) cornering her in the hallway after she missed her shots with the dart gun. She'd huddled behind Borg's wings as those fists slammed into their dubious protection again and again and it roared without a mouth.
-Finding Kasumi inside the Yellow Knife host (http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b142/c10dstr1f3/Sketch_h.jpg). The thing had let out a blasting quack, quaking as it died from the evisceration by Kumi's drills. Kasumi spilled out, naked and full of rage amidst the pool of green slop. That's when those soft hands with painted pink nails had closed around Kumi's neck...
-Being part of the Sunflowers again, inside their delusion. They'd convinced her mind that her friends were aliens. And aliens...well, they needed to be killed.
-Red Snout bearing down on her, lips curled back to reveal teeth like daggers, baleful eye looking at her with cold malevolence and hunger. The stench was the worst.
And then it all repeats.