///On Hiatus\\\ [Stories That Never Took Off]

[redolent] Chapter 3: The Pentium

"Do I begin now?" she questioned, her voice patters escalating excitement.

"Of course," the head scientist replied, pushing thin wired frames higher on the bridge of his nose. Behind her, the slick white walls separated into a rectangular opening. An exit.

Redolent slipped off the table and walked to the scientists. She tapped one slender finger against the side of her cheek in a human mannerism programed into her hard drive, she thought hard.

If there are no human hosts, the virus will cease to exist, she reasoned.

In the next .53 seconds the white walls were splattered, dripping, encased in red.

She let the scientist's head fall to the floor, the blood sliding down her arms. She felt the rivulets splattered on her face. Reaching up tentatively, she wiped some from her cheek and stared at it fixedly. It sat in an orb on the tip of her finger. In it's surface she could see her own reflection.

Long tendrils of black hair, pale white face with eyes the color of the dying sun.

She decided she liked herself slathered in red.

~ ~ ~

She tensed her legs and leapt lightly onto the high wall encircling the city. She stood hundreds of feet above the ground, surveying the city at siege below. The air was blackened with smoke, plumes spiraling into the polluted air. Cries and screams rung out in the frigid air, she took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh, closing her ears to the destruction below.

Sitting down gently, she let one leg swing over the brick wall lazily. Abruptly, vibrations carried up the wall as people thundered against it's chrome doors. Smirking, she wondered vaguely why these people continued to fight her. She was protecting them from the Pentium--even if it meant death. Every life is like a grain of sand to her, one little insignificant speck in her existence. She wiped the beach clean first, and then she would watch the waves clean up after her. Nature would start anew with being stronger than before. Evolution would restart again like a never ending cycle. In the long run, what she was doing was right. She was sure of it.

Standing up quickly, she jumped. Summersaulting over the heads of the crowd, she landed with her knee tucked under her, plumes of dust rising around her in an morbid cloak.

She raised one hand swiftly, the black armor wrapping itself around her arms and extending outwards into a pair of thin ebony blades. She gripped one in each hand, preferring to detach it, instead of leaving it attached to her arm. She took a step forward, but a hand was placed on her shoulder lightly.

"Redolent, relax," Calamity pushed a sheaf of electric blue hair out of her eyes and stared at Redolent.

"Get off of me," Redolent snapped, trying pushing her out of the way. Calamity side stepped her, remaining in front of her stubbornly.

"Calamity. Move." the furious girl ordered between clenched teeth. She thirsted for action. A siege was a waste of her talents, yet Calamity had refused to take any other action. According to her, it was the best way to eliminate the most amount of Targets as possible.

"We don't have to kill them off now," Calamity began to plead. Her eyes were swimming in unshed tears, "I let you go the last town, but that was only because they were showing signs of the transformation. These people are innocent."

"For now," Redolent growled. She was itching to hurtle into the crowd and dance in the rainfall. She stared into their eyes wide with fear, it disgusted her. These humans were scared of her? She was putting them out of their misery. Better a quick death than one by the Pentium. She had seen the transformation first hand, it was--