Avoiding Krakoshans was easy. They all weighed a ton, and a squad of them running in formation was ridiculously loud on these metal floors. Dragging along my hostage, who was suddenly very compliant now that my gun was back on his head, I pressed on along the various hallways, taking care to steer in opposite directions of the marching sounds. Still, he knew as well as I did that I couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually, I'd run into a hallway packed with too many Krakoshans to handle.

"Stop here," I ordered, pushing my hostage against a door.

This one, unlike most other doors, had a lock. Useful for someone trying to avoid patrols.

"It is locked," Vysin said, his face pressed into the metal.

"You probably have access," I snorted. "Open the door."

"I recommend finding the nearest exit," he continued.

I cocked the pistol and jammed it into the back of his head.

"I said, 'open the door.'"

"You won't kill me," Vysin countered. "If you fire now, you will attract the patrols and face them with a dead hostage."

"I didn't say anything about killing you," I said, trying to sound threatening.

My hostage hesitated, the sounds of marching feet growing closer. I bit my lip, glad Vysin couldn't see me sweating. If he delayed any longer, I was going to be caught for sure.

"Very well," he agreed, touching his wrist to the panel.

The door slid open and he stumbled inside. I followed, letting the door slide shut behind me. This time, I kept my pistol trained on him closely, making sure he didn't do anything out of line. Putting Vysin against the wall, I began barricading the door starting with the nearest cabinet. Anything remotely heavy went up against it, stacking carts, chairs and random objects until the door was securely blocked.

"Safe," I muttered.

"How curious," Vysin said. "You equate cornered situations with safety."

I glared at the Krakoshan, leaning on my pile to catch my breath. It wasn't like I worked out or anything.

Now that I wasn't preoccupied with the Krakoshans marching around outside, I turned my attention to the room's decor, slowly taking in my surroundings. The walls were covered with counters and built-in cabinets, likely containing extra supplies, and a single strip of light illuminated the room. There were two carts, both containing trays of metal utensils of some sort, and three monitors mounted on the wall that displayed stuff I couldn't read. At the center of the room, a surgical table was covered in a red and white sheet, surrounded by the monitors and what looked like an IV stand. A closer look told me the sheet wasn't supposed to be red.

"Is that...blood?" I asked hesitantly.

Vysin followed my gaze to the table, then nodded.

I approached the table cautiously, steeling myself for whatever I was going to see. The sheet was covered with what appeared to be a humanoid body, stained dark crimson and smelling of antiseptic. I lifted the corner quickly, and instantly regretted it the moment I saw what was underneath.

"Oh Zeus," I gagged, backing away from the sheet. "Oh Zeus!"

I gagged again, covering my mouth with one hand, then edged forward, my other hand outstretched toward the corner. Gripping the sheet firmly, I pulled it off and quickly stepped back, careful not to tread on the bloody sheet.

A tall, dark, muscular boy, maybe a few years older than me, lay on the surgical table, spread-eagled and covered in dried blood. His shirt had been cut away, exposing a massive hole in his chest. The Krakoshans had completely vivisected his abdomen, peeling back the skin around his torso and pinning it to the table, almost as if they had been operating on a frog. His innards, including nearly all of his internal organs, lay exposed to the open air. His ribcage was held open with a clamping device, better exposing the boy's lungs and heart. A tube filled with some yellowish liquid was snaked into various parts of the boy's body, pumping the chemical into him constantly. I could see his heart beating hard through the mess of gore. When I pulled off the sheet, I also exposed the table, revealing massive pools of blood that ran off the edge through the use of a ramp and into a basin, some of it spilling over and dripping over the sides in small streams. From the basin, a pump forced the liquid back into the boy's arteries through tubes.

I gagged and turned away with my eyes closed, trying to block out the horrific image from my mind. The boy's head had been partially disfigured, his face partially covered by burn marks. From the looks of it, he was missing an eye, too.

"H-his heart," I stuttered. "It's still b-beating. He's still alive."

Turning back to the table, I averted my eyes and stepped closer to the monitor. Sure enough, there was a screen showing flashing lines. Heartbeats. Glancing at the tubes uncertainly, I wondered if the boy could still survive if I cut him loose now. I looked back at the bloody mess of a kid and immediately rejected the idea, turning away from the table in disgust.

"Nothing I can do," I gulped, looking away. "Oh, Zeus. He's gone."

Peter flashed through my thoughts, and I felt a surge of terror. If I didn't get to Peter in time, would they do this to him? What about my friends? Would they cut them open too? I felt a surge of revulsion. How could anyone do something so sick? What the hell was going on here?

"None of this makes sense," I muttered. "Oh, Zeus. None of this makes sense."

Turning back to my hostage, I gestured at the body.

"Did you guys do this?" I asked hoarsely.

Vysin nodded.

A new wave of nausea swept over me and I nearly doubled over. The Krakoshan stood still, seemingly not distressed in the least about the bloody mess of a body on the table. Suddenly, I raised my pistol threateningly, for the first time feeling ready to use it.

"What did you do to him?" I shouted. "Why did you cut him up? Why are you doing this?"

"An experiment," Vysin said. "We were trying to extract his Kinetic abilities from him."

"What do you want with us?" I demanded. "Why are you after our powers?"

The Krakoshan said nothing at first. He stared back at me with his yellow eyes, tilting his head to examine me as if I were a curious puzzle. Finally, when he spoke, he sounded as if he were lecturing a student in a university.

"Do you know how you received your Kinetic abilities?" he asked suddenly.

The question took me by surprise. I hesitated, mulling it over in my head. They taught this in history classes, but I didn't always pay attention.

"Well..." I said.

Vysin continued as if I'd never spoken.

"Your Kinetic abilities were a gift," he said. "A little under three thousand years ago, there was an intergalactic war that lasted almost a hundred thousand years. In an attempt to create a race of superpowered sentients, one side experimented on your early Terran ancestors, creating Kinetic abilities overnight."

"What does this have to do with anything?" I demanded.

"The Kinetic abilities of your race have been the envy of the universe since the founding of your small nation," Vysin remarked. "Did you really think that nobody would ever attempt to duplicate your abilities with science?

"This project, Trial 017, was constructed with the goal of examining and recreating Kinetic abilities with a militaristic application. In short, I'm here to extract your powers and figure out a way to weaponize them."

I tried to think of something to say, but I wasn't sure how to respond.

"Four days ago, there was a containment failure," Vysin said, turning to face the body lying on the table. "This boy resisted capture long enough to set into motion a series of events that resulted in your own freedom. So, I had him apprehended and came down to process him myself. You'd be surprised what we managed to reap from his genome."

I swallowed.

"The burns, his eye," I said. "Were those part of your experiments too?"

"No, he received those injuries during a fight. But in the end, our forces were superior. As I stated before, your attempts to escape are all in vain."

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked, my voice shaking.

Vysin turned to look at me calmly.

"It's called a distraction," he said.

A pair of scaly arms wrapped around my throat from behind, squeezing as the clawed hands closed around my windpipe. I screamed, but my voice was cut off quickly as the hands squeezed tighter. All the while, the prisoner, Vysin, stood still and watched me with almost no expression on his face, not even smug satisfaction.

I gasped, swatting feebly at the hands around my throat. My fingers slipped without finding purchase and I bent forward, my feet sliding across the metal floor as I tried to get away. I couldn't die like this. I thrashed wildly and let out a strangled scream of frustration, a surge of panic settling in as I realized that my attacker was far too strong for a skinny kid like me.

Then, I remembered I still had the plasma pistol. I swung it around and fired, the bang it produced almost deafening in the otherwise quiet room. And just like that, the hands vanished, and I dropped to the floor gasping for air.

Something moved behind me and I yelped, scrambling away from both Vysin and my mystery attacker. I turned around, catching a glimpse of a Krakoshan as I scampered backwards. He was dressed in a skintight black suit, and he looked leaner than most of the other Krakoshans I'd seen before. He raised his upper lip at me in a soundless snarl, then leaped at me, claws outstretched. I dodged to the side, keeping out of his way as I squeezed off another shot at the Krakoshan.

Just before the round struck the Krakoshan, his body became slightly transparent and the plasma round suddenly flew through, sizzling into the floor. I gaped, astonished.

"How the hell-"

The Krakoshan roared, flinging himself at me again, but I threw myself sideways, skidding past him. His tail whooshed over my head, and the claws on his bare feet clicked against the metal floor as he lunged past. The second I was free, I scampered toward the metal carts, snatching whatever was on them. Surgical tools, like scalpels and forceps and other little things I didn't know the name of. Without a second thought, I threw the entire tray at the Krakoshan, trying to keep him at bay. It barely slowed him down. The Krakoshan paused, letting the tray phase through him, then continued after me, roaring menacingly as it advanced.

"Quite a marvelous specimen," Vysin called from where he was standing. "This soldier, and others powered like it, were born from the genes of this boy."

Ignoring the blabbing scientist, I picked up the IV stand beside the kid and swung it around, dislodging the tube from the vivisected kid. I felt bad, but I had no other choice. As the phasing Krakoshan grew closer, I held it up like a sword, waving it in front of me as if to ward him back, but the Krakoshan continued forward and passed right through. I tried swinging it again, but the Krakoshan caught the IV stand in his hand and tore it out of my grip, throwing it over his shoulder and letting it fall to the ground with a loud clang. At this, Vysin gave out a cry and shouted something in Krakoshan, scrambling to pick up the stand and righting it. I ignored him, scrambling around the vivisected kid and keeping the surgical table between me and the phasing Krakoshan.

I locked eyes with him, my heart beating thunderclaps in my chest. Oh, Zeus. I was going to die. I was going to die. I was going to-

The Krakoshan lunged, phasing through the table, and I rolled to the side shrieking. I felt a claw whistle past my head, so I ducked lower and scrambled away. I wasn't going to last much longer, running around like this. I ran around to the other side of the table again, my breath coming in shallow gasps. I had to get away.

As the Krakoshan swung back around for another pass, I snatched up the vital signs monitor next to the surgical table, heaving it in his path to slow him down. Like before, his body turned transparent, not bothering to swat aside the monitor as he passed through it.

It all happened so fast, I almost missed it. A low sizzle filled the air as the Krakoshan spasmed in place, the monitor dropping to the floor with a loud clang. Moments later, the Krakoshan fell with it, collapsing limply on its side and leaving the smell of something burning in the air.

The room was silent.

I stumbled back, staring at the body on the ground in horror. It had powers, I thought. The Krakoshan had powers. They're not supposed to. Then, an even more horrifying thought struck me.

Did I just kill a Krakoshan?

I bent down hesitantly, putting my ear out to listen for sounds of breathing. Sure enough, the Krakoshan was just unconscious, breathing in shallow breaths on the floor.

A hiss behind me alerted me to the door opening, and I whirled around just in time to see Vysin step away from the panel.

"Hey!" I shouted. "What-"

The barricade I'd set up at the door suddenly broke down as the largest Krakoshan I'd ever seen charged through, its upper body slanted forward. As more of the Krakoshan entered the room, I quickly realized that the Krakoshan was actually a snake below the waist, long coils of scaly body streaking into the room after him. The creature cradled a heavy energy rifle in arms the size of small tree trunks, and he moved with a sort of dangerous grace.

I whipped out my plasma pistol, pumping the trigger as fast as I could. Most of my shots sizzled right off the snake's thick head before it batted my gun aside, sending it skittering to the far side of the room. It raised its energy rifle and roared, and I closed my eyes to keep myself from seeing the bright energy flash.

Nothing happened.

I cracked my eyes open, and both the snake and I stared at the smoking crack I'd made in its energy rifle.

"Heh heh," I said. "Would you look at-"

The snake roared and flung a hand out, throwing me through the air and into the wall. I hit the wall with a heavy thud, feeling the wind being knocked out of me as I slumped to the ground. That thing was strong.

I struggled to push myself to my feet, one hand on the wall for support as I cleared the stars out of my vision and regained my breath. Luckily, the snake creature was too preoccupied with its now useless rifle, examining it to see what exactly had gone wrong. My eyes landed on my plasma gun, lying on the ground not so far away, and I grinned. I dove toward it.

"Hey, ugly!" I shouted, brandishing the gun. "Smile!"

The snake turned its head around all the way, sort of like an owl, and it roared, forked tongue flying out. I loosed a few shots, hoping to land one in the soft flesh of its mouth, but most of them fizzled against the opposite wall. Before I could squeeze a few more shots in, it streaked forward and picked me up in one hand, throwing me aside again. This time, I crashed through the surgical table, scattering bone saws, scalpels, and tweezers all over. I also knocked the vivisected kid to the floor, something I felt terribly guilty about, but there was nothing I could do. Stars danced across my vision again.

I glanced up, barely able to concentrate on the massive monster snaking its way across the room to me, its tail whipping back and forth, smashing through the cabinet I'd used to barricade the door. Along the way, the creature snaked right over a chair, crushing it flat under its weight.

I glanced around me, eyeing the surgical tools on the floor. I could use those, but seeing how thick its skin probably was, the scalpels were probably going to be useless. Though I was still groggy, I could see my first pistol not so far away, where I'd dropped it. It was still intact, though located behind the creature.

I forced myself to my feet, distinctly aware of the many aches and bruises I was going to have, and stood up straight. Staring down the monster defiantly, I screamed and charged forward, putting all the rage and anger I had into it. Its thick claws reached out to grab me, but I threw myself onto the ground, letting the smooth metal floor carry me across the room until I reached the pistol. Snatching it up, I whirled around, aiming the pistol straight at the back of its head once more.

"Take this!" I shouted, firing a plasma round directly into the back of its head.

The creature shuddered, its upper body suddenly going limp. From where I was standing, I could see its entire body suddenly giving out, dropping to the ground with a heavy thud.

Lowering my pistol, I peered at the creature, shocked. I'd done it; I'd held off a huge Krakoshan on my own, without powers.

"Neat," I whispered, as coils of scaly skin suddenly wrapped around my waist.

My breath was whipped out of my lungs as the coils tightened, another coil encircling my pistol arm. I gasped as my breathing thinned, forcing myself to drop the pistol as my grip on the weapon became too painful for me to bear. The snake creature I thought was previously dead suddenly lurched back up, turning to grin at me.

I struggled weakly, stopping when it tightened its grip. Out of the corner of my eye, more Krakoshan troops poured in, training their energy rifles on my head. Vysin reappeared at the edge of my vision, conversing quietly with what appeared to the be the commander of the squad. There was no escaping this one.

Damn you, I thought, cursing the Krakoshans in my head. Damn you all.

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