"He'll be alright?"
"Yes, fortunately the bullets didn't go too deep, I think it was just exhaustion that knocked him out," a feminine voice answered the question.
"Wonder what happened to him," that voice was a little higher, sweeter sounding than the first male voice.
"More like who the hell was he running from, who shot him, and should we be worried about it?" that one was pissed off sounding, a little deeper than the second male.
"I want to look him over a little more and when he wakes up we'll get some answers. From the blood test I ran there are definitely traces of Holy Grail in his system."
"Does that explain the feathers on his back?"
"Well, it certainly could. Valkyrie had something happen to his body too," the female voice continued.
"He didn't sprout wings, Kilia."
I moved, alerted by the voices. The words I heard were not enjoyable. I wasn't someone's lab rat, damn it! What I saw was not what I was expecting. The woman who had been speaking jumped a little as I suddenly sat upright. Along with her there were four men in the room. Tossing off the sheets, I was out of the bed before any of them could protest at my sudden movements. Glancing down, I felt the tightness of bandages around my body and glowered at the white cloth a moment before I turned my gaze up to the people surrounding me.
"Hey, hey, don't move so quickly! You'll reopen the wounds that Kilia just bandaged up!" one of the men said to me. He even had the gall to move closer to me. He was shorter than I was with black hair and mismatched eyes that I had never seen before. In return, I made an annoyed sound at the back of my throat and snatched his arm as he reached out for me. Twisting hard, I yanked him around and pulled his arm up behind his back. The boy yelped in surprise and pain.
Gripping a handful of his hair, I pulled his head back as I lifted him just enough to be in front of me as a shield. It probably hurt his shoulder the way I was holding him, but I could care less right then, "Who the hell are you people?" I snarled in his ear.
One of the men, the dirty blonde one, had drawn out his weapon and held it leveled at me. His green eyes were narrowed to mere slits, an angry frown on his face as he watched me carefully. I pulled at the boys arm, making him yelp in pain.
"Let him go," the dirty blonde snarled at me.
"Look, we found you in the street. You were unconscious and bleeding. We couldn't just leave you there," another one answered. He was taller than the one I held in my grip and the other that pointed a gun at me. He looked foreign but his accent was nonexistent. I narrowed my gaze at him, grinding my teeth as I leaned down towards the boy's ear.
"Who. Are. You?" I accentuated every word whilst twisting his arm.
He groaned in pain as he answered me, "We're not going to hurt you."
I could have laughed at that. There were a lot of people who said that and yet they did so anyway. That was a fact I'd learned a long time ago. So naturally, I didn't believe him. The blonde took a step forward and I pulled back, dragging the boy with me. I sent him a warning glare, "Move again and I'll break every bone in his body. What do you want?"
"Valkyrie..." the taller one sounded distressed, his gaze locking on the boy that I held. I wasn't sure what it was I saw in his eyes but it made me pause for a moment. Only a moment, though.
"I'm okay... It's okay..." Valkyrie insisted.
He won't be for long, I thought as I moved from my spot. Keeping Valkyrie ahead of me, I started for the door of the huge medical room. I didn't like the fact the woman was in a white lab coat. It set me off immediately and I wanted to be as far away from her as possible. The other three turned with me, the one with the gun taking a few steps forward to try to keep me in his sight.
I backed up to the door slowly. I didn't know the room I was in, or where I was. All I knew was that I wanted out. I had been shut up inside for far too long and I wasn't going to let anyone shut me up again. The boy allowed me to take him with, hardly struggling at all which made me wonder, but I still didn't let him go.
"All we did was help you," he said to me, his voice strained as I pulled at his arm. I could easily break it in one motion and I was sure he could feel his shoulder being put to its limit.
"Whatever you wanna call it, boy," I growled back as I hit the door and started out into another part of the building.
"We really don't mean you any harm!"
"They all say that."
"Look, we're not even from this city! We're just looking for something!"
"Shut up, or I'll be inclined to make you silent forever."
Valkyrie fell silent finally. I took a look around the place that I'd ended up in. It looked like some old persons retirement home. One where they had nurses and that sort of thing to look after them. It explained the medical room. Shouts from the stairwell filled the open lobby and I glanced up to see a group of men aiming weapons at me and Valkyrie. Grinding my teeth, I pulled him harder along toward the front door of the place. He gave a shout of pain at my rough handling, but I didn't relent.
As soon as the doors were slammed open by my back I rushed out into the street with the group following after me. The boy that I held made a strange sound, something between a short growl and an angry sigh. I felt something strange happen to his body. The arm I was holding, the skin grew tough and sharp to the touch almost as if there were scales there instead of soft flesh. Valkyrie ripped free of my grip, startling me. He whipped around to face me, anger across his face.
The green eye was glowing brightly while the blue one was a dull glow. His hands up to his elbows had turned black. Long claws extended from the ends of his fingers. Along the forearms were sharp black spikes and black and purple colored scales covered his arms. My gaze grew wide as I stared at him.
"Holy Grail..."
Valkyrie arched an eyebrow at me before he returned to glowering at me, "Yeah. What. Thought you were the only one? Look, asshole. We picked you up off the side of the street because we're just nice like that. Threatening to tear my arms off is usually not how you repay someone, you ungrateful fucking bastard!" he snapped at me.
As he unleashed his anger at me in what seemed like an impulsive, un-thought out process, I reached back for Holy Grail myself. My wings came unfurled from my back, the limbs pulling from the shoulder blades to extend the mutation to their full length. Valkyrie seemed in awe at this as he stopped his little tirade and watched with wide eyes. He looked fascinated with the display, just as I became somewhat fascinated with his arms. It was a normal reaction when using the drug.
I snapped back into concentration a moment after, "Look you little shit. I didn't ask for this, so don't go thinking I enjoy it."
He scoffed at me, "Neither did I."
I paused for a moment. His words were filled with resentment toward something. He looked angry and upset about the situation. Valkyrie hadn't lied to me. It was what made me rethink my course of action. That, coupled with the fact he had Holy Grail as well... I unwillingly wanted to know more. They said they were there in that city looking for something. I was pretty sure I knew what it was as I watched Valkyrie eye me up and down. Crossing my arms over my chest, I frowned at him, my wings twitching slightly as they settled over my shoulders.
"You won't find it."
Valkyrie tilted his head at me, "Find what?"
The doors slammed open from the house and out came the blonde with his gun, the other two that were in the medical room a moment before followed. The one with the gun raced down the steps and raised the weapon at me. Valkyrie turned as the gun went off.
"Jace! Don't!"
Rage pulsed through me at having been shot at. Granted the bullet had just grazed the side of my cheek and probably on purpose, but I was still pissed off. Uncrossing my arms, I snarled at the one named Jace and opened my wings in preparation to lung at him. It took two steps and I was hurtling across the open yard at the man. Valkyrie got in my way. His armored hands took hold of me and twisted me around in mid air. He slammed me into the ground. With Valkyrie on top of me, I gave an enraged yell and took hold of him instead.
Twisting around, I gained my feet with the help of my wings and hauled him up against me. Jumping up, I took to the air with Valkyrie in my grasp. He gave a startled gasp and the men down below shouted for him. I tightened my grip on him as I took us up to the roof of the retirement home. Falling into a corkscrew as I rose up over the edge, I pulled my wings in and dropped down to the graveled roof top. Slamming Valkyrie into it first, we slid across it for a little while before we stopped.
Kneeling over him, I pressed him hard into the rocks a snarl on my lips. I was so close to just snapping his neck for the fucking stunt that was pulled on me. Valkyrie winced as he lay there but still managed to glower at me in return. His arms moved, the clawed tips dug into my sides, going deep. Pulling him up, I slammed him back into the rocks as hard as I could. Rocks blew out from under him and I assumed he'd done something to ease the impact.
"As I said, everyone says that pretty little lie so they can get what they want," I snapped at him.
"And you're being an irrational prick! He shot at you because you grabbed me first, fucker! You think taking me up here and trying to kick my ass is going to get you out of trouble? You're dead wrong! We don't want to hurt you, but if you hurt us first we will fight back, dumbass."
"Who are you!? What are you here for?! You wanna try to put me in a fucking box again? Think you can just put me on display and make that bitch downstairs run tests for you?"
"She's not a bitch! Her name is Kilia and she would never do that! What the fuck are you on?!"
"Answer me!" I roared at him, my fingers tightening on his shoulders with the intent of crushing the bones.
Valkyrie winced, writhing under me, "We're called Fukkatsu! We're here to find out who the fuck made Excalibur and Holy Grail! We want to destroy it and find a cure!"
I paused. My mind worked around his shouted confession, the angry look on his face as he squirmed under me. Once again, he hadn't lied to me. It was a little talent that I had picked up during my time with the sicko's back at the facility. I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to deal with what he said. He wanted to find the ones who made the drug. I knew who made it. He wanted to destroy it. I knew where it was. He wanted to find a cure. There was no cure.
We were mutants for the rest of our lives.
I slowly released him and stood up. He watched me carefully before he got up as well. My wings twitched as I folded my arms again, eyeing him. Valkyrie dropped Holy Grail first. I kept mine on for a moment longer and then finally let it go as well. With a heavy sigh, Valkyrie pushed his hands through his dark hair. He started to pace as we stood on the rooftop. Over head, the gray clouds began to rumble and the first drops of rain pelted the rocks as we stood there.
"Fukkatsu. The hell does that mean?"
"Revival. Tristan's father was Japanese," Valkyrie answered off handedly.
I scoffed, "How fitting."
"Shut up."
"Watch it, boy. I can still snap that pretty little neck of yours."
He glared at me, "You can damn well try," he growled and then shook his head. Heaving a heavy sigh, he scratched at his head, "You really made one hell of an impression back there, idiot. Jace is going to be all for putting a bullet through your head."
"He can try."
"Oh fucking stop already. You're not a God damn immortal dumbass. I'm trying to save this situation. You've got a lot of talking to do I'll have you know."
"What, now you're going to interrogate me. I don't fucking think so," I turned away from him and headed for the edge of the building. I started to touch Holy Grail again as Valkyrie's footsteps across the gravel rushed toward me.
"Hey! The hell do you think you're going?! You can't just go running off on your own and especially not off the side of a building. Holy Grail can't keep you going all the time, surely you know that by now! We're in the fucking apocalypse how the hell are you going to survive on your own! Just let me talk to Jace and get this thing all settled out. Believe it or not, but we're not the bad guys here!"
With an irritated sigh, I stopped walking and released the hold on the drug that I'd begun. Turning to him, I watched him with a deep frown. That kid was going to piss me off constantly, I could just feel it, "Tell that to mister trigger happy."
"Oh my God," Valkyrie huffed and rolled his eyes, "You know what. Stay here for all I care, up on the roof. Jump off if you like to; you're such a pain in the ass. I get that you don't like us. Fine, whatever. But for someone who was saved off the street, you're a real piece of work."
I huffed as I turned my back to him, "Say what you want. Not going to change a damn thing, boy."
"Asshole. You can't even say thank you? You lose your manners too with Holy Grail?"
I whirled around on him. He was close behind me, a mistake in my book. No one was allowed close to me, and especially not any more. Not unless I allowed it. His throat ended up in my grip as I started walking toward a white wall behind him. It was probably the stair case that led down into the building. He thrashed in my hold, surprised, angry and a little fearful too. His fingers clawed at my hand as I walked with him tightly between my fingers.
"I lost a lot of things. My life. My family. My lover. My humanity. When they say 'rock bottom', I was the epitome of that. Hell, I was deeper than rock bottom. Caged up. Tortured like a fucking animal. For years I went through hell with those fucked up bastards who called themselves scientists," I spat at him as his back hit the wall and I stopped walking. I leaned in over him as he stared at me with wide eyes, shallow breathes wheezing into his lungs past my tight hold.
"So yeah. I lost my manners. Hell, I might even have a few screws loose, who knows. I'm a little on the chaotic side, boy. You sure you want someone like that around? You all just might never wake up again after a night with me in the house."
I finally let him go and he dropped to his knees, coughing hard as he gasped for air. I turned around and headed back for the edge of the building. Valkyrie called out for me again and I thought for sure that time I was going to lose my temper and kill him.
"You won't do that."
I growled, fists tightening, "What gives you the right to say so?"
"Because," he coughed again and I heard him stand up, "We have something in common."
"What's that?"
"We had things taken from us. Everyone has. But this drug... is even worse. We want to get rid of it. I'm sure you do to. Help us do that."
"You're one persistent, impulsive little shit."
"Yeah, I know. But I can also tell you want to do something about it too. You've got plenty of rage. Why not direct it at someone who deserves it?"
I took a moment before I sighed heavily and allowed my body to drop down in a sitting position on the rooftop. Tilting my head back, I let the soft drizzle of rain wet my face as I thought about the options given to me. That boy sure did have a way of talking. It was annoying, yet he'd spoken truly the entire time.
"Idiot kid. Do what you want," I finally said as I sat there.
I heard him leave to head down to the people he was with. Shifting, I looked out into the gray haze that layered the city. Far off in the direction I was facing, I saw the tall walls of the facility that I'd escaped. It was the testing facility, with most of the drug there. The place that made the drug was a little further east, almost on the outskirts of the city and deep underground. It was where I first was introduced to the drugs and the fanatical scientists who thought they were doing the world an honor.
I gave a short, irritated laugh through my nose. Honor. As if. Those bastards are going to find out just what it is they've unleashed into humanity. And I'll be the one to shove it down their throats as I kill them one by one.
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