The Vespidian

Arc 9 Twilight

Chapter 14

(Sub’s pov)

Blackness, an abyss of pain. I… I can’t hear her. I can’t hear Vesper. I reached out, feeling through the corners of our mind for that familiar presence. She was hurt, curled away in a dark corner. So vulnerable, so weak. She was at my mercy, unable to fight back should I choose to eat her. How I have longed for this moment, for us to become one. It would be so simple to devour her, but no, this isn’t how things were meant to be. Don’t you worry, Vesper, I will keep us alive no matter what it takes.

I could not smell, I could not hear. The dry taste of ash filled my mouth and the dull light of the world flickered before my single working eye. I could hardly feel, the searing of our melted flesh and broken shell. This body was not long for this world. Hungry, so hungry. The tingling of my limbs flared as I tried to move the arms. Finally, the arm that Astrea had gifted us with flopped into view, twisted and broken as it was, it was there, it was moving. The others, there were no others. We didn’t even have legs.

Silence, so quiet only the pumping of my hearts filled my head. Ash and radioactive dust floated through the air, giving this dark place green glowing specks, like fireflies in the night. There were shapes, all around, blackened and twisted. My claws curled around one, pulling it, ripping it. My tongue pressed against the charred thing and the flavor of burnt meat, perhaps pork, teased the taste buds… I don’t remember there being any pigs down here. It doesn’t matter what it is, I require sustenance. It is dead and I am alive, therefore it is food to be consumed. Delicious. Is it because I am so hungry that it tastes good? The mandibles slowly chewed at the charred flesh. Protein was needed to regrow.

Piece after piece, mouthful after mouthful was chewed and swallowed and with every bite, the feeling returned to our broken body. Slowly my vision unblurred as the eyes regrew. A ringing filled my head to replace the maddening silence, the stench of burnt flesh and melted metal tingled through the sprouting antennae. More, I needed more.

My hand dragged yet another of these burnt and distorted meat bags over to me. Snapping and crunching the bones and the sweet marrow within. Savoring every bite as my body cast off the old, scarred tissue and new flesh budded. Still, this would take time, far longer than I felt comfortable being so… vulnerable.

Now that the body had stabilized to a degree the surroundings came into focus. Everything was still, save my movements and the particulates drifting through the shafts of light that stabbed down from the fissured ceiling. A realization slowly crept into my mind. Ah, they were not pigs at all, they were the people that had been huddled behind us. Vesper is going to throw a hissy fit over this. Though I was right, they do taste good. I wonder how succulent they are when not burnt to a crisp?

Though things were a bit foggy still there were a few things that stood out, Xava and Chief should have been here. My eyes gaped, taking in all of the room, squinting at times to focus in on particular shapes. Hmmm, they don’t appear to be here. Strange, they were here, Xava had been in front of us and we had been over there. Slowly I dragged myself over to where we had been. A puddle of cooled metal sat on the floor. She must have melted… my tongue clicked with a tch sound, yet another mate ripped from our clutches. We must be stronger next time or choose a stronger mate. Shame, she was willing.

My eyes sifted through the bodies searching for the other. Chief was not far away, drooped against the wall. The metal of his suit melted and distorted around him. He must have been cooked alive inside of that thing. He had gotten it rather bad from the looks of it. The metal had encased his screaming face, making a mold out of it. I felt… nothing. Not sadness, or grief, perhaps anger. Less that they were emotionally connected to me and more that something had been stolen from me. I guess I never really cared about these creatures. They had been convenient. Humans… so weak, so… useless. For some reason my stomach turned at the thought of eating him, well that is fine, there is plenty of other food here.

I lay there recuperating our strength, slowly nibbling on the seared meat close to the bones. Tired, we were safe now so a little nap wouldn’t hurt anything. Hopefully, the limbs will grow back… otherwise, we are going to have problems.

~~~

I sat cradling Vesper while she slept. At times it was hard to tell that she still lived with, how still she got, faintly trembling. At other times kicking and clawing in her nightmares. I stroked her face, gently rubbing her. Lulling her terrors away. Reality was cruel enough, she didn’t need these foul thoughts.

“Good Vesper, yes, sleep. Just sleep. I am here for you. Just rest. That is it just relax,” I whispered into her trembling antenna.

Her fits diminished as I rocked her frail form. She peacefully slept for what felt like days, but I knew full well that time was different in here. It was likely only minutes outside. My hearts hurt as I watched her, the love of my life, the only one that I care for to be so hurt. It was vexing to be so powerless. We needed to be stronger so that no one could ever hurt us again. But, how? This body had already reached its limits. The muscles would not grow anymore and the carapace could get no thicker. We had plateaued, reached our peak. There had to be something that could break this limit, some way to become as strong as Astrea was, no stronger, faster, smarter.

***

(Vesper pov)

I felt a warmth spreading over me like a blanket. Slowly my eyes peeked open and there, there was Sub. Seeing her, I leaned back, letting out a long sigh, “We survived.”

“Yes, though barely.”

“Barely? How bad is it?”

Sub shrugged, “Well… we are stabilized thanks to me.”

I shifted into consciousness. Fearful to see what had happened. I could see the blackened shapes that were once clearly people, burned and ashen. It was so quiet here, like a tomb. I can’t feel my legs or my arms for that matter. Oh fuck, there is only one usable arm. There was a brief moment of silence before I frantically cried out, “Sub, Sub! What happened. Everyone is, everyone is dead. Xava and Chief, where are they?”

“They are dead, Vesper,” Sub replied, not sugar coating it.

My arm weakly hit the ground, “No! You are lying. Sub, they can’t be dead.”

“They are dead Vesper. Xava died protecting us. Chief is over there, he didn’t make it either.”

It was true, though his suit was blackened and warped I recognized it. There was no mistake. That was Chief. I held my face, tearing up as I stared at the face of frozen agony. Vaguely, I recalled Xava glowing red hot and melting. Lightly, I pawed at the cooled metal. Xava… no. We, we were going to have babies together. Why? Why does everyone I love get stolen from me? First Astrea and now Xava. Who is next Ichigo? Oh are my parents safe? They should be, I mean they were at home on the north side of the city… how big was the blast though? Is there even a city left?

“It happened again Sub. People died to protect us again.”

“Don’t move around so much, we have to conserve our strength. Otherwise, we will have to eat more.” Said Sub.

“Eat more? Eat what Sub?”

My eyes trailed along the blacked limbs and it was then that I noticed that all the ones within arm’s reach had been taken. My tongue rolled as I realized what this charred taste must be. No, it can’t be.

“Sub! What have you done!? You ate people?”

“I had to. We were dying. What you think I wanted to eat that burnt flesh that tasted like charcoal?”

“But, but people! Sub this is wrong, so fucking wrong!”

“So what? You would rather us die than eat something that is already dead? It is not like I killed them.”

“That is not the point Sub!”

“We are not people! We are not human! I have had enough of your clinging to those weak little creatures. We are better than them. They are dead and we are alive! Why should we hold ourselves to their standards?”

I held my face, crying, “Sub I don’t want this.”

She growled in my head, “It is not about what you want, it is about accepting reality! They are all dead. Sunshine is dead, Xava is dead, Chief is dead! Now, what are you going to do about it? Cry in this dark hell hole or are you going to pull yourself together and get revenge on the one who did this?”

I lay there blankly, “Revenge?”

“Yes,” replied Sub, I could feel her stroking me, “Chimera did this to us. Nightmare did this to us! If it wasn’t for her we could have been a hero, our friends wouldn’t have died. It is all her fault. She deserves to die for what she did. When we catch her I am going to eat her, limb by limb starting with those precious hands of hers.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know about eating her.”

“You have killed before, why are you faltering? So what? Are you just going to let her get away with all the death and destruction she has caused? A real hero would stop her, permanently.”

“I just don’t know. Give me some time to think about this.”

Sub yelled at me, “What is there to think about?! She killed them all! She killed Sunshine and Xava and Chief and who knows who else! Don’t you remember, there were thousands out there! She deserves to die.”

I snarled back at her, “I never said she doesn’t deserve to die! I will snap her in half, tear her to pieces, and piss on her grave! Hell, I have half a mind to hold her down and fill her with eggs while she cries for mercy and I pray to whatever horrible god exists that our children eat her from the inside out! It is us eating her part that gives me pause.”

Sub coiled around me, kissing my neck, “Ohh yes, that is more like it. There it is, there is all that rage you have been bottling up. Remember how she tortured us when we first arrived in the Hero League. Remember how she made everyone think we were crazy and all those scientists kept poking and prodding us like an animal. It was all her doing. It wasn’t just us either, she did such terrible things to Sunshine too.”

“Sunshine…” I trailed off, “What would Sunshine think of this though? I don’t think she would approve.”

“Are you serious? Nightmare drove her so mad that she created an evil alter ego to try and kill her. Just think about it, Nightmare is the root of all the evils of this city.”

“I think that is being too generous to her. You are giving her too much credit, Sub.”

“Perhaps, but it was Nightmare that warped Sunshine in the first place. If she never existed, then Sunshine never would have been so fucked up.”

“If she never existed, Sunshine never would have existed. She would have been a different person.”

“Semantics, the point is things would have been better.”

I lay there, silent for a moment, “I can’t argue with that. So what should we do Sub?”

She mulled it over, “Well, we need to get stronger. So strong nobody will ever fuck with us again.”

“How are we going to do that?” I asked.

“I am not sure, but Dr. Arbor probably has some ideas. If anybody knows, it would be that lunatic.”

“How the hell are we going to get to her? We only got one fucking arm.”

“Just rest Vesper, hopefully, we will regenerate our limbs.”

“We can’t regrow our limbs! That is Rank 6, we are only Rank 5.”

“I know that. If we have to we will crawl all the way there even if our claws bleed. But for now, we need to rest.”

Sub was right. There was no use in wasting energy we were going to need all that we could get to escape this place. It wasn’t hard to sleep the body was exhausted and our minds weary from this trauma.

***

Our sleep was disturbed by a sound. Footsteps echoed through the dreary tunnels, rapidly approaching. My first impulse was to hide, dragging myself away into the corner, below the rubble and the seared corpses. I was too vulnerable to take a chance that it was a feral sewer mutant or someone who might harm me. The footfalls got louder and a strange metallic humming sound became apparent. I tensed when a light appeared in the corridor. My eyes squinted, blinded by the brilliance. A dark shape hovered, scanning the light over my secluded alcove. It was some sort of drone with a red lensed camera.

“Nyah, are you sure she is here?” Asked a familiar voice.

My eyes strained and I saw the ginger hair of Glitter Kitten as she looked over the room. She was wearing a tight catsuit and I vaguely remembered that she had shaved off her fur at some point after I left the Slums. I paused for a moment, unsure if I should call out or not. We didn’t exactly leave on good terms with one another last time.

The drone thing beeped, it talked back, “Vesper should be there, collect her and bring her back before anything else happens to make things more complicated.”

Her large green eyes looked about, the iris slit down the middle. Glitter Kitten sniffed at the air prowling closer. She stopped for a moment, looking over Chief’s body, “Nyah, Fire Chief kicked the bucket. You sure Vesper is alive? I know she is a tough bug, but eh things aren’t looking so good here.”

“Yes, though damaged, her biometric monitors are still relaying a signal. It is coming from the corner, she might be unconscious. So be gentle with her, there is no telling the extent of damage.”

They were tracking me? Wait, but only Xava and Dr. Arbor had that sort of access. How come Glitter Kitten knows? As jumbled as I might be, I could still think. By process of elimination that meant that Dr. Arbor was working with either Kraken or the Mad Dogs if not both. Well, the hero League has gone to shit. Without Chief I can’t get a new suit so I can’t really stay with them. Then what option do I have? If revenge is truly my goal, then Kraken is my only choice. Besides, I know too much to trust the Hero League at this point. There is no telling how many of them are actually Chimera operatives.

Weakly I raised my arm up and coughed, “Gl-Glitter Kitten.”

Her big cat ears rotated in my direction and she quickly approached. She grabbed hold and pulled me free from the rubble and corpses, she chuckled, “Hey little meouwsy, long time no see. You look like shit, Nyaha.”

“I feel like shit. I only got one arm.”

She hoisted me onto her back, “I got her, eh though we might have to start calling her Torso Girl.”

“That bad? Well, just get her back here we can fix that.”

Glitter Kitten smirked, “She has been disarmed if you get my drift.”

If I didn’t hurt all over I might laugh at that. I had Questions though, “Why did you come for me?”

“Well, since I am the fastest around Boss sent me to fetch you. Nya… I did get a bit lost though. City isn’t exactly what it used to be.”

“Boss?” I asked.

“Nyeah, Molotov sent me. Though you got some more friends waiting for you too.”

I squinted at her, though she couldn’t see it while rushing through the catacombed sewer, “What friends?”

She stopped for a moment as we left the sewer. I stared out across the expanse of desolation. A crater miles wide in all directions around us formed a bowl shape. Concrete emerged in places where the sewers were exposed. Nothing lived in this place. There weren’t even traces left behind of the countless lives lost. Near the center, the ground raised up in a pillar over a hundred feet tall. A single place that had been spared most of the ravages of the weapon. It was all that remained of Sunshine’s last stand. Distantly skyscrapers leaned, collapsed in on themselves outside the lip of the crater.

“Hmhm, you got more friends than you seem to think,” she laughed before the world shifted into turbo speed.

I always knew that Glitter Kitten was fast, but it was certainly different getting dragged along as she darted through the city, so fast windows broke in our wake and she was still getting faster. She turned on a hair, cutting corners so hard that the pavement shattered under her paws, leaving a trail of her prints. The wind roared by deafening the sirens in the distance. The world was strangely peaceful as though nothing else existed. Of course, that is probably just all the blood pooling in the back of my head. That would certainly explain all the pretty colors zooming by. I was not at all accustomed to these extreme conditions, blacking out from the G forces.