Ever After #7: Waves of Scales

Chapter 16.1 The Blood

UNAWARE OF THE miserable fate of her friends on the base, Asceia concentrated on collecting water and compressing it tight as possible. She was standing in the dark woods and staring at the weapon approximately five hundred meters from her position. It was like a massive missile launcher pointing west. The rest of the armed forces were surrounding the area and were just waiting for a signal. She took a deep breath and continued humming the Song. Her arms were straining and her hands were shaking as she struggled in holding such massive water.

When she can’t hold it anymore longer she took a deep breath, with all of her force, she blasted the water away while maintaining her influence in compressing it. The ball of water flew across the woods and in a blink of an eye, it smashed right through the weapon. The collision caused a splash of water that swept the mutated humans away. But as the water was pulled by gravity, she was shocked to see the weapon was still standing: no scratches and it wasn’t even moved.

Her attack gave the signal to the soldiers, they rushed in and started shooting at the mutated humans with darts laced with horse tranquilizers.  One by one, they dropped to the ground, unconscious. Asceia quickly followed them and just as she arrived at the site, no mutated human was left standing. She should feel relieved, but deep inside, she felt something was wrong. It was too easy something was off.

Her gaze shifted to the weapon that remained at the center. She stared at it carefully, trying to figure out how it was designed. Upon looking at it, she noticed something engraved on the metal casing and its tires. It’s the logo of Herozoan Genetics Corporation. One step backward, Asceia was shocked to feel a cold metal wire wrapping both of her legs. In a snap, she was pulled down and hit her face on the ground, then she was pulled and hung upside down. She tried to reach for the wire to untangle herself but she felt the strong shock of electricity all over her body, draining her strength.

She relaxed and let her body hang down, pulled by gravity. The wire was tightening on her legs. It caused a burning sensation as it started scraping her skin. She looked around, trying to ask for help, but then she was disappointed, not surprised, to see how she was betrayed by the soldiers.

“Let me go!” she commanded, but none of them complied. Right there, she noticed they were wearing earpieces with loud music interfering with her voice.

She hummed the Song and started gathering water, but she groaned in pain to feel the sting and burning sensation of electricity brought by the shock baton pressed to her spine. She lost control of the water and while she was enduring the pain, one of the soldiers gagged her mouth with a device that wrapped around her head. She attempted to scream but it had no effect.

“You really think you’re the one in control here, huh?” the General mocked and walked closer to her. “You monsters are not welcome on this land.”  He gave her a hard punch in the stomach. She grunted as she swung back and forth.

She just watched the men laugh at her. While she was trying to figure out how to get away, she heard something in the dark. Heavy and slow footsteps became louder and louder as they came closer to their position. She waited for it. While the men were busy checking the weapon and the unconscious mutated humans, all of sudden, rapid gunfire terrorized the area.

Several bullets punctured different parts of her body and the pain was too much. The soldiers, who were caught by surprise, dropped to the ground with bullet holes and bathed in their blood. One bullet hit Asceia’s left thigh and there she felt dizzy, she looked at it and noticed the black fluid flowing through her blood vessels. As her vision started going dark, from the woods, a familiar face emerged. She was smiling, holding a gun.

It was Frejean. 

••°°••

OPENING HER EYES, Asceia was surprised to find herself surrounded by water, in her sercean form, and lying on the floor. Her webbed claws reached for her mouth and confirmed that she still have the device attached and it was dampening her powers. Though her eyes were designed to see in the dark, she was blinded by the darkness of her environment. She tried to swim, but without any sense of direction, she flapped her tail and swiftly moved her webbed claws. And she groaned in pain after colliding into a thick wall.

Once again, she realized she was back in Herozoan Genetics. As she kept swimming around, figuring out the space she was in, she found out that it was the same big glass box they used to contain her. She also felt something was on her head, causing a light drag. She reached for it and attempted to remove the helmet but it released electricity that stung her fingers and brought extreme pain to her head.

All of the sudden, the light flooded the area, bringing colors and clarity to the environment. She was right, she was in a glass box and outside, Frejean was standing and looking at her, and she was not alone. Beside her was Yrevia, wearing her mother’s body. She was furiously mad. What she was seeing and where she was in, explained everything. She was betrayed and she was very disappointed in herself that she didn’t see this coming.

“Hello, Asceia.” Frejean crossed her arms. “I’ve been waiting for this very exact moment.”

“I’m going to kill you…both of you,” she warned telepathically.

“Yeah, do your best,” Frejean said, “maybe enchant me to skin myself to death, like how you tortured my father.” Her words froze her. “Yes, my father is Rick Santos, and spoiler alert...he’s alive.” She chuckled. “But thank you for that. Because of his absence, I became something.”

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Asceia,” Yrevia talked to her telepathically, “surrender your powers to me and this will be over quickly. We will kill this woman and own this planet.”

“No,” she denied firmly.

“Then I guess, we’ll do this the hard way.”