Sweet Venom Arc 03 Ch. 11

Crisis module activated.

Elevated voice detected, enhancing profile. Assistance may be required. Processing:

*zzzt* "LESS THAN A WEEK SINCE MOOKI WAS CORRUPTED" *zzzt*

Detected south of your current position, approximately two-hundred and fifty metres. According to station schematics, this area is designated as the emergency lifeboat bay. Voice profile matches that of XITD station head administrator - Evangeline Caizer.

No further voices detected in the vicinity.

Theo hushed the AI operator with a quick tap on his gauntlet. He paused and stared around the remnants of Evangeliene's office, taking it all in, trying to process what he'd just heard.

"Since what?"

Guilt chilled him to his bones. He rubbed his hands down his face, which was riddled with stress, and tried to keep calm. The gentle buzzing sound from the crisis module attached to his arm brought him out of his thoughts, and helped him focus his attention back to the rapidly deteriorating station around him. The melted corpses of XITD guards were visible in any and every direction he looked, their scale armour reduced to a molten slush of silver.

He swiped at the display on his gauntlet until he found Jace's name, and hit 'connect.' A loading screen flashed up for a few seconds, but then promptly flashed orange, sending bristles of adrenaline through the rhargnorn's scales.

"Fuck. This is bad."

He tapped again, trying to reach anyone he could on the local lines now, but a new flicker of red across the holoscreen confirmed that he was on his own.

Comms centre is down, it'll take at least two hours for my messages to reach him... SHIT! Guess I'm the only back-up coming!

"I gotta help anyone I can." He breathed in deeply, trying to keep calm, and quickly checked his environmental shield battery and armaments before stepping out of the office. His metal leg clomped against the floor, and the rubber of his other boot began to soften.

Every corridor he ran down yielded more of the same. His gauntlet blared with danger at every corner. Sealed doors were glowing amber with heat, prompting a warning of imminent death should his shield fail. It was a blessing in a way though; no one could survive in a room that hot, so there was no need to check and risk a hit on his shields.

Several corridors were blocked off by a series of bouncing flaming bolts, forming a weird but effective barricade; Theo's gauntlet kindly reminded him with every one that even a single one of these bolts would drain a significant amount of envirashield, and hitting zero meant almost certain death. Even for a rhargnorn like Theo, inhaling air over three hundred degrees was suicide.

He pressed on down the only corridors he could, which seemed to be leading him quite purposely across the top of the station. All he found along the way was more death and destruction; multiple pairs of boots welded to the floor, some with their owners still inside, and others who hadn't quite been so lucky, and had welded with the floor around them. Some of the bodies appeared a little more intact, with no apparent cause of death. From the temperature his gauntlet was detecting in the area, Theo's best guess was that these people had suffocated on the scorched air filling their lungs.

Not usually one to be fazed by 'collateral damage,' Theo couldn't help but fear for his safety at the clear demonstration of strength from the attackers, and the safety of anyone else left alive. After not too long, a new type of warning flashed up on his gauntlet:

Environmental shields at seventy-five percent, please remain vigilant.

The carnage seemed unending as yet another explosion shook the station, but he couldn't help but notice the sudden change in carnage ahead of him. He was approaching the entrance to the E-Labs, but the door had been cut through by a laser rather than melted off, breached cleanly into an oversized rectangle that was much larger than any typical XITD staff. Brandishing his pistol, he stepped carefully through the hole, cautiously looking down the curving corridor which all the E-Labs were currently docked into. The corridor flashed with bright crimson light from the alarms, but otherwise seemed still and - curiously - untouched by the damage that had permeated the rest of the station.

Slowly, he made his way down the corridor, passing by the entrances to each E-lab, starting at E-30.

Weird, my envirashield isn't being drained here... whoever's attacked the station seems to have spared this place.

There was no sign of life so far but, not one to be put off, Theo continued on his way.

There must be someone around here, this feels too precise. Every other room melted to a sludge but this place is just sitting pretty?

After walking for what felt like forever, but can't have been for longer than a minute, he noticed among the line of tightly secured E-Labs that one had its door wide open. He slowed down slightly as he approached, and noted the number E-16 on its side.

Although the open door may have been what Theo noticed first, it wasn't what held his attention. He stared in disbelief and a little bit of disgust at what appeared to be a severed head with spider legs, standing on a rolling shelf outside of the doors.

"What the actual fuck is that?!" He blurted out, squinting at it.

The Slave head spun around on its legs and looked up at Theo. He raised his pistol and made to shoot the damn thing, but a voice called out to him from within the lab, and he froze.

"Theo?! Is that you?!"

He didn't recognise the voice, but whoever it was clearly knew him. Cautiously, he crept closer, maintaining eye contact with the Slave head and staring at it with an increasing disgust, but it did little other than just watch him right back.

The corridor yielded little, and his gauntlet advised Theo of a heat signature coming from within E-16.

He approached the open door, weapon drawn and held an arm's length away. He turned the corner and quickly scanned the lab's interior; it was mostly intact, but seemed hastily abandoned. Papers and various bits of equipment were scattered about the floor. As he examined the room, his gaze came to rest on a figure, tucked away at the back of the lab; a large draconic woman, who was restrained on top of a surgical table by several thick metal brackets around her limbs and neck. Her skin was a deep cosmic blue, as was her hair, which was currently messy and splayed out underneath her. She also had a beautiful pair of wings, which were bundled up and restrained, just like the rest of her.

She stared over at him with large midnight eyes, swirling with purples and blues and surrounded by black sclera. They slowly began to tear up as the rhargnorn stared at who he believed to be a complete stranger.

"T-Theo?"

"Miss...? I'm trying to help with the evacuation of this station. You're under siege. Can you explain why you're restrained in this lab...?" Theo asked softly but cautiously, casting a glance over his shoulder.

"Y-You don't recognise me at all....?!" The girl broke into a quiet cry, and let her head thump back against the metal behind her. "W-What have they done to me?!"

"Should I know you, Miss?" Theo took a few slow steps forward and looked over her body for injuries. A slight, uncomfortable shiver ran up his spine as he realised she was naked.

"I-I made you the sweetest hot-chocolate you've ever had... A-And you saved my head from the evil shelving in my office..."

Theo's heart nearly stopped in his chest.

"Mooki?!"

"Y-Yup!" She fought back the tears in her eyes, forcing a smile onto her pretty face. "I think?"

"What happened?! Why do you look like this?!"

Another explosion shook the station, taking both the dragons by surprise. Mooki squealed as the table rocked.

"I-I don't know, Theo! I just - I'm so glad to see you, I thought I was going to die in this lab! As soon as the attack started, the researchers just abandoned me, left to die here, alone I suppose..." She sniffled again, watching him closely, desperately with her large eyes.

He visibly shuddered at her words, and shook his head furiously.

"Oh, like hell are you dying alone in here! Let's get you out, did they hurt you?"

"Y-Yeah, they were sticking things in me, scanning me! They wouldn't tell me what's wrong!"

Theo holstered his weapon and marched across the room, still silently processing the situation as he searched to release her bindings.

"I overheard Evangeline say that you've been corrupted. I don't know much about what that means, Jace has had me busy with the nomad colonies, but I swear to Chance, Mooki, we'll put this right." He said firmly, poking at the various controls on the table.

The restraints suddenly opened with a loud clack and Theo turned to find a spare medical gown for her. As she sat up, feeling her wrists awkwardly, Theo dropped his gaze quickly to the floor.

"Can you walk?"

"I - I think so."

She pulled the gown over her curvaceous form, hunching over as she placed a foot onto the ground, then yelped loudly in pain as she rolled her weight onto it.

"Oh shit, here, let me help!"

He ran over and put an arm around her back to support her, but suddenly, something felt wrong.

The moment his skin made contact with hers, something changed in him. The scales on the back of his neck bristled, and his every instinct was screaming at him to run. He felt an abstract sense of extreme danger, every nerve ending in his skin tensed with anticipation, like he'd just taken hold of a live bomb.

Mooki straightened herself out, putting her weight onto her feet slowly. The size difference between them became suddenly and readily apparent as Mooki stood up straight, towering over the rhargnorn. Her wing restraints clattered loudly to the floor as she stretched them out, and touched both sides of the lab with ease...

"Y-You seem... fine... Mooki." Theo remarked nervously, his heart thumping in his chest. His free hand began to drift towards his pistol.

The dragoness stared down at him, unimpressed.

"Now now, Theo. Let's not make this more difficult than it needs to be." Her soft voice had changed sharply, and in the blink of an eye she'd seized his wrists. "It's so much better on this side, I'll treat you right, I promise."

"Oh fuck, fuck everything about this!" He tried to pull his wrists free but her grip was overpowering. He narrowed his eyes, reeled his head back and pounced up at her, headbutting her straight in the face.

He felt a solid crack, almost like he had headbutted a wall, and Mooki's neck lurched backwards. Her grip loosened. But as he went to turn and pull himself free, he felt her hands snap around his shoulders.

"LET ME SHOW YOU HOW IT'S DONE, SOLDIER!"

She smashed her forehead into his with a thunderous blow, sending him tumbling towards the ground, blood dripping from his mashed scales.

As he stumbled, she lurched at his legs and ripped his pistol away from him, chucking it into the corner of the room behind her.

Theo quickly found his way to his feet, swaying slightly, and spat a trickle of blood out of his mouth. But the dragoness was pouncing on him again, pushing him onto the floor and trying to pin him down.

They locked arms on the floor, Theo's muscles shaking as she pushed his arms over his head. Mooki stared down at him with an evil grin from ear to ear.

"I wonder how the corruption will mix with a male-only species like yours, Theo? I hope you end up a Node, it would be such a waste to see you become a Slave."

She clamped her hands around his neck, pressing all of her considerable weight down onto him.

She didn't want to corrupt him when he was fighting like this, it would be far too messy, and after all, she didn't want to accidentally kill him. She choked him hard, waiting for him to go limp enough to corrupt, but the rhargnorn continued to pull at her hands with all his might. The fight in his eyes was anything but fading.

Mooki sighed with frustration, shaking her head.

"Ah, I forgot. Fucking rhargnorns will asphyxiate before they pass out, all those years of genetic engineering were good for something... guess it'll need to be blood loss instead!"

She reeled back for just a second and drove her claws into his neck, punching straight through his scales.

Theo winced in pain as blood oozed out around her fingers, but she drove them in deeper, preparing to pull out as much of his neck as she deemed necessary. He seized hold of her arms, trying to keep them locked, but he knew it was a losing battle.

"I'm... sorry..." Theo grit his teeth, remorse clear in his pained, bloodshot eyes.

She frowned for a second before feeling the male kick up underneath her. Something solid hit her the stomach and a loud, muffled *BANG* shook the room.

Mooki clutched at her blood-splattered stomach and rolled off of him, curling up on the floor as blood pooled around her body.

Theo shot to his feet, two small gun barrels now visible within the kneecap of his cybernetic. He kicked his leg forward and the cap closed with a *chunk,* not dissimilar to how one would cock a shotgun.

"You'll be alright. Should be non-lethal with some medical aid." He was breathing heavily, feeling the injuries on his neck. As he pulled his hand away, he noted the blood on his palm. He clenched his fist and stared down at the dragoness, a mixture of fury, fear and guilt in his eyes. "I'm really sorry about that, but please, just tell me what's going on. What happened to you? Why are you fighting me? I want to help you!"

"You fucking should be sorry!" She coughed, pressing her fingertips into the blood pooling around her as she pushed herself up, slowly. "You did this to me! You knew I was in danger, you felt it! But you just walked away and left me on this godforsaken station!"

"You promised me that you were okay! I told you to contact us! If you didn't feel safe, you should have said! You should have left with me! W-What happened to you?! Why do you look like... this?!" He gestured to her absurdly sexual frame, heavy with curves and muscle, far from the once ordinary, slender girl she once was.

"No. You led me into a trap by my neck and assured me I would be fine!" She hissed, slowly straightening her back out. The blood dripping between her fingers had slowed to a mere trickle, and was crystallising around the wound rapidly. "I had no idea what I was getting myself into!"

"I don't understand!" Theo shouted desperately, glancing down at the gun behind her. "I... I'm sorry, Mooki. I fucked up, you're right. But I want to fix this! Please! I have some medi-gel with me, I can fix your wound and we can put this right! If you come with me to Jace and tell us what happened - "

Her wings unfurled with a loud flap, cutting Theo off from his pistol.

"Oh no. No. It's far too late for that. There's no undoing this."

"Mooki... please. I want to put this right. I let you down. Let me help you." Theo pleaded, slowly backing away. He could see that her strength was already returning.

"To every person I spread this to - I will whisper in their ear that they can thank you for their fate, Officer Kintrax." Her eyes remained locked on him, and her mouth began to salivate.

Theo shrunk down, pained by her words, but raised his fists up to defend himself.

"If that's how you see it. I can't help you, if you won't let me."

She bared her teeth, showing the bright white of her fangs, and then lunged at him, surging across the room with blinding speed... However, before she could land a blow, she jerked back as violently as she had surged forward, as if someone had pulled on an invisible leash. She stopped, as if glued in place several feet away from him, her face blank, her stance awkward.

"YOU NEED TO LEAVE! NOW!" She barked at him, her voice so loud it echoed down the corridor and clawed at his ears. "GO! BEFORE I HURT YOU!"

Theo shook his head, eyes stinging with tears as he tried to figure out what was going on. Nevertheless, he began to back out of the room as Mooki stared him down, glaring at him with furious eyes.

He opened his mouth, but words failed him. In that moment he felt torn, and the pain he felt in his head was nothing compared to that in his chest. His fists clenched down by his sides. He was angry at Mooki - why hadn't she contacted him? What had he missed? And he was angry at this... creature for attacking him. And he was angry at himself, for failing, for walking away, for being more concerned with fucking Royal Military Division protocols than protecting a young girl...

Although his mind was still racing, his legs retreated back, as ordered. He made his way back along the corridor, and through the breach on the main door...

No.

He ducked down in the corner of the other side of the door.

I can still help her. She changed her mind, after all... She doesn't want to hurt me, not really... She has to leave through here, maybe I can follow her.

*

"~E-15, right?~"

"~Yes! That's where she was last!~"

Leech stepped through the breech she'd just made in the reinforced metal door, careful not to touch the searing hot edges. Once through, she hoisted her laser and dashed down the corridor until she found the lab she was looking for.

The door to E-16 had been left open. As she approached, she could hear Mooki struggling from inside as the station started to shake.

"~I can't get out of these restraints! I'm right here, please!~"

"I'll come get you in a minute!" Leech snapped out loud as she crouched down in front of the keypad on E-15's door and pulled a small disk out from a pouch on her belt. She pressed it up against the pad and rotated it slowly, as it started to flash and numerous potential combinations flickered across the keypad screen.

Plasia first.

A few moments later, the door hissed - it was open. Leech reached over awkwardly, pulled the doors apart and stepped into the poorly-lit room. She slammed the door shut behind her and stood for a few moments, trying to calm her breathing as her eyes adjusted to the gloom.

Her heavy breathing twisted into a sharp gasp.

Her eyes flickered rapidly around the room as she tried to comprehend the scene in front of her. She glanced down at a metal instruments table, and sat, in a silver tray, an eyeball stared straight back at her. Delicate rings of blue and swirls of green encaptured perfectly inside a large orb. Blood was dripping from the optic nerve, and hitting the tray with a slow, gentle, rhythmic *ping.*

"What have they done to you?!"

She moved further into the E-lab, glancing behind herself quickly to double check the door was closed. She slapped the small whirring machine to the floor, pulling its cables free of Plasia's torn and broken skin. It spluttered out remnants of the blood it had been drinking as it smashed on the floor.

Small drops oozed from the needle points in Plasia's skin but it was barely a dribble; there was hardly anything left.

Leech grabbed her medi-gel and quickly sprayed it over the wounds, then placed it down on one of the trays nearby, and clicked her fingers in front of Plasia's limp face.

Her one remaining eye did not open.

"Fuck... You're not fucking dying in here, Plasia, you hear me?"

The scene in front of her was like something from a nightmare. There she was, hanging up like a part-dissected puppet. Living autopsy was the first thing that entered Leech's head as she raised Plasia's head, and tried to get a closer look at some of the more serious-looking wounds.

Serious, precision-cut wounds.

The work was clean, flawless, for lack of a better word. There were deep, straight cuts all across her body. One of Plasia's legs had been removed entirely at the thigh. There were various chunks of flesh and skin missing from all over her torso, but even these seemingly random chunks looked surgical.