Of the Darkest Depths: Darkness

Chapter Eleven

Holy shit!

I can't beat him now. I can't compete with armour or machine guns. Only weaponless combat or with knives.

What the fuck I am going to do? I can't just sit here. I can't just surrender myself. I have to do this for Marina. But, I also see no other way out of here.

I sit, shaking, in the bushes for a long moment thinking hard about what to do.

I remember the dream I had a couple nights back; the forest... Marina...

The police!

They may be sided with Dr. Michael, but they actually do some good. If they know what Dr. Michael has been doing, they can't refuse to arrest him. His crimes are too harsh to go unpunished.

I get into a safe spot behind where the bushes are most dense and shapeshift back into a human. I pull out my phone quietly and quickly call the police. It rings through for a long tense moment.

Finally someone picks up. "9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"Hello. I'm being attacked by someone. He is using weapons. I'm hiding right now." I whisper to the person on the other side of the line. "He has committed many crimes before."

"What is this man attacking you with?"

I breathe in. It's going to sound very weird to this person. "He is attacking me with robotic limbs with machine guns attached."

Silence on the other side. "Are the robotic limbs prosthetic legs or arms?"

"No. He is an engineer and managed to make extra robotic limbs to attach weapons to just to attack me."

"It still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I'll send the police your way. Could you tell me where you are located?"

"The cemetery in Nanaimo."

"Alright. Please stay on the line until the police arrive."

"SABRINA!" Dr. Michael calls infuriated. "Are you calling someone?"

Fuck. I hope they actually send the police. I need to face him again and make up some clever lie to tell him.

I put down my phone and slip carefully through the bushes. I shapeshift back into a dragon. I face him, tensing the muscles in my back legs.

"Did you call the police?" He asks me with an icy edge to his voice.

I sigh. It's really hard to skirt around it. "I did, but they didn't believe a word I said. They hung up on me."

He scoffs. "Of course they didn't. They won't believe that their partner would do anything you're framing me for doing."

"I would never frame anyone. You committed serious crimes multiple times and you still haven't been arrested. It's been- how long?"

"Fifty years."

Holy shit. That's insanely long. I can't believe he hasn't been arrested yet!

"Fifty years. It's about time." I conclude.

"Like I said, I have not done a single thing wrong. However... you have. You're interfering with science and destiny. This is what I'm meant to do and you're trying to take that away from me-"

"Of course I am! Because you're a criminal!" I launch myself at him, aiming straight for his feeble robotic limbs. I grab the robotic limb and swing around. My back legs land on his back. I scrabble against the metal on his back underneath his shirt. I eventually puncture a couple holes, enough to hold on. I fold my wings around him to throw off his sense of direction.

I hear the machine guns start to whir again. I look up and one of them is pointed right at my face.

I quickly yank it down to my reach and punch it. Paint burst from my talons. The machine is slightly dented, but it's slowing down.

I grab it again and bash it on his back.

A burst of pain erupts in one of my wings.

The other machine gun is shooting at my wing.

I quickly kick myself off of Dr. Michael. I twist mid-air and land on my feet. I quickly turn to face him.

"H-HOW DID YOU DO THAT? These are supposed to be completely indestructible!"

I give him an overly triumphant look to piss him off even more. "Well, you obviously didn't do a very good job at making them. Now I actually stand a chance of beating you."

Another whir starts up, but not from either of the machine guns. Four more metal tendrils unfurrel from behind his back.

Fuck. I'm in deep shit.

Am I going to have to break them all one-by-one? He's got to have a limited number of those things. If I break enough, I'll get to the last of his supplies. This is going to take a long time. The police should be here soon though.

I start creeping around the edge of the clearing. He slowly turns to keep up with me. I stare at him, looking him up and down for a plan. His ankles...

I charge for him, teeth bared. I close them tight around his ankle on soft flesh. It's completely unprotected. Of course he isn't smart enough to even think about adding any protection on his ankles.

Then, maybe...

I stomp on one of his feet. It's protected.

How stupid must he be to protect everywhere, but his ankles?

I hear another robotic limb unfurrel. There is no whir. It's not another machine gun...

A sharp piece of cold metal pierces the skin underneath my scales. A sharp pain comes along with it.

I clench my teeth harder around his ankle from the pain.

HE HAS MORE WEAPONS ATTACHED TO THOSE TENDRILS? How many weapons does he have?

This is definitely a battle I can't win by myself. I have to ally myself with one of my greatest enemies.

I feel the sharp piece of metal slide slowly through my tail. Tears start rolling down my snout, unable to contain them any longer. The metal makes it to the other side of my tail and pierces the skin.

A long tense moment passes before something happens. I see a police car arrive. Two bulky men hop out, looking around for us.

One of the officers spots us and points us out to the other officer. One of them heads back to the car, fear dashes his eyes. The other one, slowly and carefully makes his way towards us. He stops a few metres away.

He clearly recognizes me, but he doesn't know that I see him.

The other officers joins him a moment later.

One of the officers catches my eyes. I show him that I'm hurt and I mean him no harm.

He sees the look in my eyes. Sympathy softens them.