Corruption

The Darkness

                            EARLIER

Miranda helped Nelson sit painfully on his plain bed. Miranda suggested he take some of the green pills to speed up the process, but he wasn't exactly keen on becoming less human. "Well if you insist," Miranda shrugged, "In that case, the medicine we got should heal you in about 53 hours." "Are you going back down to Earth?" Nelson asked her. Miranda nodded. "What are you going to tell them about all your bruises from Artūghzia?" "I'll make something up," Miranda shrugged. Nelson sighed sadly, looking down at his feet. He used his mind to lay Nightmare on the pillow beside him. "What is it?" She asked him. "I miss Earth. I'm never gonna get to go back down there am I..? "I'm not saying it's impossible," Miranda said cautiously, "Just.. you know. Things are complicated right now. Just give it some time please." Nelson chose not to reply. After an odd sort of silence from Miranda, she quietly told him, "Sorry.." before leaving his room. This shit sucks man, he thought irritably. He just wanted to get back to Anora. He missed her terribly. A few hours passed by - or something, considering the Urzuhg didn't have clocks, so he had a hard time keeping track of time - and Miranda returned to his room. "What is it?" Nelson asked her. "You wanted to go back to Earth right?" She asked. Nelson nodded. "Why don't you go back with me? They want me to create a distraction in Hawaii to get their attention away from what they're really doing. They aren't there now, but at least you can see your home planet one more time for a while. That's the best I can do for you right now." "Why would you try to help me?" Nelson asked her. "Why not?" She replied, fiddling with her fingers. "If we want you on our side, it's probably best that I try to get you to stop hating Urzuhg." "Why didn't you just ask for my help? And just be honest about it?" "Wouldn't have worked out," Miranda said. "I can almost promise you. If you ever do really join us of your own free will, it'll make sense. But are you wanting to come or not?" Nelson nodded. "I'll take what I can get," he told her. "Of course," she said. "But... thanks for this," Nelson told her. She nodded. "Are you ready to go?" Nelson thought on it. Guess there's no point in trying to escape if they aren't even down in Hawaii. Then if they catch me again I'll be on a tighter leash. Maybe I can use this to gain big trust from them so they'll let me down there more often? I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't be in so much pain, though. He reluctantly took another glowing green Urzuhg pill. "I'll take that as a yes," Miranda said with a smile.
*****
She took him down to some Dojo in Hawaii. It was after dark. By the time they got there, Nelson had all but healed up. These Urzuhg pills were seriously strong. Before they walked in, she told him, "I just have to pay this guy really quickly. Been paying him to keep his mouth shut. You don't have to do anything here." When they went in, there were only a few guys in there. A Hispanic guy, with a black belt, a nerdy looking white guy, and two Asian guys. "Miranda?" The Hispanic guy walked up. "Sensei?" Miranda said plainly. "I have your payment." She pulled out a wad of 100 dollar bills and handed it to him. Nelson noticed the people in the Dojo all looked kinda funny at each other, and then the Hispanic guy (the sensei) finally took the money. "I see," the sensei said. "This is nice and all.. but I don't think this is going to be.. quite enough." Miranda raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" She asked. "This is exactly the same amount as last time." "I mean.. it's a pretty big secret and all," The sensei said. "Surely you think it's worth a little bit more than just some cash?" The Dojo master walked a bit closer to her, eyeing her intently. Nelson frowned intensely. Fucking surely he's not.. he started to think before his thoughts were interrupted by the nerdy looking white guy. "What's wrong with your friend there?" He asked, noticing Nelson's disgusted expression. Miranda turned to glance at Nelson, a confused expression on her face. As she did, the Dojo master reached his hand out towards Miranda's butt.
Before he could actually touch her though, Nelson grabbed his wrist tightly. "I think the fuck not," Nelson said, his voice deceptively calm. Miranda backed up, but didn't speak. "What are you gonna do?" The Dojo master asked sarcastically, "What are you an 'alien' too?" Just as he finished his sentence, he pulled out a knife with his other hand and tried to cut Nelson's hand. He let the man cut him, and let his hand go, but stood in between him and Miranda. He showed the sensei the open wound on his wrist. The humans' jaws dropped when they saw his wound immediately close back up with a quiet, squishy sound. "Díos mío..." the sensei stuttered. Nelson's expression feigned disinterest, but he was furious at the man's actions. Sure, it didn't actually hurt him, but it was the principle. He noticed his vision turn green, and he put a hand on Nightmare, preparing to take it out. "You know," he said, almost too quietly for them to hear, "Rapists have a funny way of pissing me off." He took out his blade Nightmare, which had a bright green glow to it, as it typically did when he experienced heightened emotions. "W-what did he say?" One of the humans in the back whimpered. "Won't matter in a minute," he said coldly. He allowed Nightmare to rise slowly into the air - mostly to freak them out. "Hell no!" One of the Asian men in the back cowered, "I don't know this man! I no like him either!" "Maybe you don't, or maybe you're a coward," Nelson shrugged. "Either way, you were going to let it happen. So how does that make you any different than him?" "No!!" He got up and tried to run away. Nelson allowed him to run past him, just so he could test out - and show off - how much faster he got since taking another extraterrestrial pill. At this point, he was fast enough to where, to the human eye, it looked like he simply faded into thin air, and reappeared in front of the exit. "Holy son of a motherfucking bitch...!" The Asian gaped. Nelson proceed to gut punch him so hard that blood quite literally flew out of his mouth, and splattered on the floor and the wall, and flew backwards into the other side of the dojo and into that wall, leaving a human sized crater in it. He fell down limp on the floor. "Damn," he said cooly. "Can't remember humans being that fragile." "Please...!" The Hispanic man begged, "I'll do anything.. please... I won't even look her direction... I won't even think about looking her direction... please.... I'll do whatever you ask... just please...." He fell to his knees and begged. The other humans were too scared to move. Nelson stood over him, Nightmare now cackling with Dark green electricity as he got riled up. He didn't want to kill a man begging for his life. He felt bad doing what he had already done, considering he didn't really believe in killing unless absolutely necessary. But he disgusted him. He didn't consider Miranda a damsel in distress by any means, but what kind of a man would he be to let something like that happen? He couldn't stand by idly. But there was a part of him that liked the power, that enjoyed the control. It must be Nightmare influencing his personality, preying on his disgust for the man. "Tcch," he spat. "I hate humans like you...." after a moment he made up his mind. "You would do whatever I want?" "Sí, yes, anything!!!" The Hispanic frantically replied, bowing over and over. He felt himself smile at the irony of the Dojo master bowing to him in his own dojo. "Okay," Nelson started. "Well. I want you to die." The man opened his mouth to cry out for help but before his vocal chords could make the sound, he had been sliced up into pieces, blood flying and splattering everywhere. He chopped up the rest of the humans immediately afterwards without thinking about it. When he was done, he sheathed Nightmare back into it's sheath - which he had started strapping on the side of his leg - and stared in horrible at what he had just did.
             Miranda put a hand on his shoulder. "You.. you know you didn't have to do that..?" She said slowly. "But um... thanks.." Nelson nodded, but didn't speak. Before they left, they switched into some spare clothes in the back of the Dojo with out any blood over it, and exited the building. He noticed as he looked back that the building looked completely normal and empty from the outside. There was no blood on the glass door, and the bodies seemingly vanished. "What the hell??" He gasped. "It's an Urzuhg technology," Miranda explained to him. "I don't know if you remember way back when you trained with my Dad, Mari as you call him, but basically it's a simple illusionistic technology that can, when properly aimed, project an image over a certain area, almost to the extent that it can make lesser evolved species believe that it's an actual space. It's mostly used for entertainment, but as you can see here, it's coming in handy." "Won't someone figure something out?" Nelson asked as he followed Miranda. "Of course, eventually," she replied. "I'm only using it now so you can have a moment to get yourself together. We need to eventually go back and get those cameras."

                              ***********

      They stopped and sat at a beach. There was a crescent moon out, glistening and reflecting lightly over the ocean as the waves caressed the shore. There was also a cool comforting breeze that tickled his face. Miranda brushed her scarlet red hair out her face so the wind wouldn't blow it into her eyes. "I brought you here," she said, "Because from what I understand, beaches and the ocean are known to be calming." "True.." Nelson said quietly. "Why did you do that though?" She asked him. "While you've still got a decent amount of humanity in you, I'm a complete hybrid. They couldn't have done anything to me." "I couldn't just sit there," Nelson replied. "It is considered dishonorable to stand by and watch something like that happen. Didn't you get what he was hinting at?" Miranda didn't answer at first, moving her wavy hair out of her face once more as the breeze blew it back into her face. A bit hesitantly, she replied, "Well.. I don't quite.. I don't know everything about humans.. like, when they aren't direct. I know some, and way more than my Dad, but I don't always pick up on subtle things like what he was doing. I thought he was just being a weird asshole." "It was pretty clear by his facial expression," Nelson said. "It honestly looked like the others wanted in on it too, if they thought they could get away with it." Miranda seemed to contemplate something, then pulled out a small container from her pocket. It fit in the palm of her hand. She pressed her finger against it for a few seconds and then threw it up in the air. Midair, it morphed into a full sized journal before finally landing in her hand. She seemed to take some notes in it - with a regular human pen - before somehow making it morph back into the small container that would fit back into her pocket.
"Taking notes?" Nelson asked amusedly. Miranda smiled and nodded. He noticed her wincing at her wounds, which hadn't healed yet from Artūghzia. "Hey," he asked her, "Why haven't your wounds healed yet? I know you're already a full hybrid, but you can't take a pill like me and heal up?" Miranda nodded. "In fact, just like you, it'll boost my healing for a while so all the wounds I might sustain for the next couple of hours are immediately healed. But I'm using these wounds as a part to go along with my story I'll tell them. I was going to just make something up about like getting jumped or something.. I didn't expect any of this to happen." "Did I mess up your master plans?" Nelson asked with a smirk. Miranda giggled a bit. For Nelson, it was still somewhat weird hearing Miranda giggle and laugh. It seemed to have a... supernatural ring to it. "No, in fact it'll help my story." Nelson nodded, but looked down. I'm helping... hurt my friends..? "Hey," Miranda said slowly, noticing his smile fade, "I know none of this is easy. I understand you are missing your friends.. and stuff down here. It's not under my control. If it were up to me..." she paused. "I mean... you know.." "Its okay," Nelson lied, faking a smile. "Thanks for trying." Miranda didn't seem to catch on that his smile was fake, and smiled a small smile back. Neither of said anything for a while, and eventually Miranda, who had started playing with her thumbs awkwardly said, "On the bright side, you look really cool you know, you know um.. when your eyes turn green and stuff." "Is that so?" Nelson asked curiously. "Yeah," she said, staring at her thumbs still. "But like but not in like a sexual way or whatever you humans call it," she added quickly. "Mmhmm sure," Nelson said sarcastically, as to mess with her but also to test to see how she reacted. "I mean you can look cool without it being sexual!" She continued, "Non-sexually cool!" Nelson did, however, find that odd statement a bit funny. When he finished laughing at her he said, "Yeah I know what you mean. I was just messing you. A joke, just kidding." Patting her on the back. She smiled awkwardly and stared at the moon. Yep, he confirmed in his mind. Maybe I can use the fact that she seems to like me to my advantage to get back to Earth and escape, he thought with a grin of his own. Seems like I'll be back sooner than I thought, Anora.
"Anyway," Miranda said, "Don't we have some cameras to finesse?" "That we do," Nelson agreed, in a far better mood now that he felt like he had leverage. "Finesse," he repeated. "I like that, it's my favorite word." Miranda nodded as to agree with him. "Mine too."