Subject Seventeen: Wraith Among Shadows

I’m taken aback by the suddenness of Twelve’s evil question. This is Twelve? I don’t know what to think of him. What’s more, I can’t help but wonder how he took out those soldiers simply by opening and closing his hand. He doesn’t even seem phased by doing that. It’s almost as if his powers have no effect on him; no fatigue or defect whatsoever.

“Does it look like I want you to take out just one person?” Thirteen replies. “Oh and, since we’re staging a coup and all those custard donuts you like so much won’t be available till you help us get out of here.”

Twelve begins to laugh out loud. His laugh fills the room and I can hear it echoing. I can’t help but feel a chill creep its way up my spine. Something tells me that this person is the most dangerous person inside this entire facility.

“Something doesn’t feel right…” Twelve says while looking in my direction. “It feels like some nerd is watching me.”

I immediately move to the other side of the room, hoping that he made a mistake. However, as I move Twelve’s gaze follows me as if he can see me. I can’t help but begin to seriously worry. Twelve is seriously crazy. There’s no way he should be able to see me. Even Thirteen can only sense me.

“Ignore him. That’s just Seventeen,” Thirteen says. “He’s just watching the proceedings.”

“Huh… A new one. Well whatever. Where’s Ten? I feel like helping him squash some bugs.”

Thirteen nods and signals for Twelve to follow him and Fifteen. I decide not to look in Twelve’s direction any longer and that maybe it is time to return to my body. Before I can do that however, a couple of soldiers rush through the same entrance the previous ones came from and aim their guns at Twelve and Thirteen.

“Hey you!” one of the soldiers says. “Get back into your cell! You’re supposed to be in prison! Don’t you know how to follow orders?”

Twelve stops walking forward. He slowly turns around and his face breaks into a devilish smile which sends shivers down my neck. He eyes the two soldiers for a few seconds before he finally talks.

“Funny. You should follow orders yourself. What you need to do is drop the soap in prison. That way you’ll learn by force to keep your mouths shut and your asses shut too.”

Fifteen bursts out laughing at Twelve’s comment and even Thirteen cracks a wry smile. The two soldiers look extremely angry as they prepare to shoot but Twelve has already raised his hand and crushes them the same way he crushed the previous soldiers without even touching them. What the hell is his power?

I don’t wait to find out and cancel my astral projecting. I feel a sudden rush as I’m pulled away from the area and flash through a series of blurry images before I find myself back in my body. My eyes are closed but the pain I had suffered before resurfaces as I re-enter my body. I fight the pain away but it takes me a moment to realise there are explosions sounding all around me along with the sound of shouting.

“Wake the bastard up now!” Five’s screams.

I open my eyes and look around. I am lying down behind a huge boulder whilst Sky and Five are crouching down behind the boulder for cover against an onslaught of bullets. Looking around I can see that we appear to be out of the facility somehow and inside a large open field. To the left there is a gigantic rectangle shaped building stretching further than the eye can see and going as high as at least fourteen or fifteen stories. It is made of a sort of pale blue-white rock with a smooth surface and has no windows whatsoever. I somehow know that this is the facility in which I was in moments ago.

Sitting up I look around me and notice that some distance away is One, an unconscious Fourteen, Eleven, Seven and Sixteen. All except Sixteen seem to be heavily exhausted and are sweating whilst taking cover from the bullets flying in our direction. I groan from the pain my body is in as I try to get to my feet.

“Looks like you woke him up yourself,” Sky says to Five. She turns her attention to me. “Did you find them?”

“Yeah,” I say. “They have Twelve, but I don’t think he’s exactly the type of guy who works in a team.”

“Glad to see you’ve met Twelve!” Five yells at me. “Now shut the hell up and help us clear out these guys! We’re supposed to have reached the hangar by now but we’ve been forced outside by their sheer firepower!”

“He needs to get healed by Eleven first!” Sky says.

I notice how tired and worn out everyone is. Sky’s eyelids are dropping and she has to force herself to stay conscious. Five has blood trailing down his face and One doesn’t even look like she’s able to move her legs anymore; she probably used her powers too much. Fourteen is still unconscious and Seven is holding her left shoulder with her right arm; she must have injured it. Eleven seems to be worn out already, possibly from healing too much. Sixteen however, is very energetic and waiting for a chance to strike.

“I understand the situation,” I say. “I’ll do something about it.”

Sky looks at me wearily as if to question my abilities at this point. I ignore her. If we are pinned down now it means we are behind Thirteen’s schedule and need to make a move now. I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing while my teammates are in danger. I’ll just have to fight my way through.

I take a deep breath and release it. I think about what I can do. I don’t just have to rely on my powers. I can fight close up just like Thirteen taught me, but I would have to get close first. I don’t also have to use everyone else’s powers. If I really have the power to use every single natural force in this world then there shouldn’t be a limit to what I can do.

I stand up and walk out from behind the boulder. The bullets fly directly towards me but I stop them in mid-air by slowing their kinetic energy and I then start to absorb all the heat from the area into me. Right now I need energy otherwise I’ll burn myself out. The cold air whips my hair around and chills my skin., causing me to feel cold despite the fact I’m absorbing heat energy.

“Nature is a beautiful thing,” I say loudly, thinking I can intimidate them even though I know I’m spouting off rubbish. The soldiers who were firing at us now look puzzled. They begin firing at me again but this time I let all the bullets pass right through me; I’m copying Fifteen. I continue. “Did you know that via anabolism I can increase my muscle mass?”

I already feel my muscles growing bigger and my body getting stronger. I can control any natural phenomenon or force, and I intend to make good on it. Next I raise my right arm and point it in the direction of the one hundred or more soldiers firing at me in hopes of hitting me. I only need to think one thought and their guns begin to rust away. Some of the guns heat up and begin to melt in the hands of the soldier armed with it, causing them to scream out in pain as they drop the weapon.

“Do you know what happens when a human gets hit by superheated gas that a volcano emits?” I say.

“Shut up and surrender, kid!” a couple of the soldiers yell back at me. One of them pulls out a grenade and tosses it at me. I snap my fingers and the grenade vanishes into thin air.

“What the-?” a few soldiers exclaim.

“The temperature of the gas can reach as high as five-hundred degrees Celsius. The heat is enough to boil your brain and instantly vaporise your flesh. So by the time I’m done with you guys you’ll be nothing but skeletons burned black to the bone.”

I concentrate as I raise my hands. I feel the ground beneath us begin to shake slightly as a light-grey and thick stream of gas begins to rise up from the ground. As it rises one of the soldiers decides to walk forward and try to get closer to me for a better shot. The gas reaches him first. I watch as the leather boots he is wearing begins to melt away and his outfit burns away also. His bare feet which is now exposed begins to boil and the skin slowly burns away; vaporised. He screams out like I’ve never heard a person scream before and rolls on the ground holding his foot in pain. That is a mistake. Now his entire body is level with the gas which begins to burn away at his entire body. A second later I cannot even hear him screaming anymore. I close my eyes and turn my head away. I don’t know why but I’m beginning to feel bad for doing what I just did.

The rest of the soldiers all begin to yell and scream at each other as they back away from the gas. I shake my head and raise my arms again. This time the sky darkens as wind whips all around me. The gas dissipates as snow begins to slowly fall. The soldiers are all in a state of confusion and have no idea what is going on. I rotate my arms clockwise above me and the snow begins to fall rapidly and spins around in a circle with a radius so large none of the soldiers can escape. The wall of snow around them makes it impossible to escape. The snow closes in on the men as I make the circular wall smaller and smaller. I hear their screams as I decrease the temperature of the snow more and more. I completely bury them in the snow.

Right now it’s the Xerxes that’s in control. I feel like a god squashing all these puny insects beneath me. I hear a voice whisper into my ear egging me on.

“Go on, Chronos,” the voice says. “Kill them all. They deserve it...”

I don't know who or what is saying it but I do as it says. I don’t wait for them to freeze to death. Instead I instantly let the snow melt into water and then I lower my left hand to my chest with my palm facing the sky. Slowly but surely a small ball of lightning begins to form above the soaked soldiers. Within seconds I have created a ball lightning the size of a football. I continue to build it up until it is at least twenty times bigger. I sigh as I bow my head. Then I clap my hands together and it explodes. Lightning bursts out everywhere in every direction. The bright blue electricity streams across the sky and breaks through the air with such force and aggression that even I’m surprised. It strikes the men who are now soaked in a pool of freezing water and I watch as it spreads from one person to the next, each of them convulsing in unspeakable agony as their eyes practically bulge out of their sockets. Their mouths are open in big O shapes and most are unable to vocally express their pain before they drop to the ground motionless.

I turn away from them and focus on absorbing more heat energy to recover my stamina and heal my fatigue. My body is still stronger from the anabolism I conducted and I slowly begin to enhance my metabolism. Two Humvees and an Insurgent are heading towards us now from the facility. A group of at least a dozen soldiers emerge from the vehicles. This time all of them are armed with Logistics, but I’m not concerned. It doesn’t matter what type of gun you have if you can’t hit me.

I remember what it was like to use Four’s power back at the military base and attempt to recreate the feeling. I’m successful almost immediately and I rush straight towards them. My vision blurs as I super-speed towards them. I stop right in front of the first soldier and I’m surprised by how hard I’m breathing. I now understand that while Four may have an enhanced metabolism and an enhanced body, that doesn’t mean his body has adapted to the point where he has the type of stamina and endurance to keep up with his speed continuously. He has to be careful about how he uses his speed.

The soldier I stop in front of looks surprised when he sees me but still reaches straight for his knife. I kick him in the stomach and try to remember everything Thirteen taught me. I take the stance, redirect all my energy to my left palm and thrust it into the man’s chest. He is sent flying back at least forty yards, his body bouncing against the ground as he rolls uncontrollably, eventually lying motionless. The other soldiers don’t hesitate to open fire at me but I have already sped to behind the soldier furthest from me. It doesn’t take more than a second to find his chi points and again I redirect my energy to my fingertips as I jab his left shoulder. His body collapses in a heap with his mouth open and his eyes wide. It doesn’t look as if he’ll be able to speak or move again anytime soon.

I don’t hesitate to speed between the rest of the soldiers, incapacitating all of them before they have a chance to attack. By the time I’m done and they are all lying down on the floor I have already exhausted my stamina. I lean my weight on my knees as I keel over a little bit. Using Four’s power really takes its toll on your stamina. I can feel the fatigue taking over me as my body slowly returns to normal and I drop to one knee with my head bowed down.

“What the hell was that?” Five yells out to me.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I just thought that if I didn’t get rid of them now then we wouldn’t be able to get to the hangar in time.”

“Mate! You just took out over one-hundred soldiers in the space of about less than five minutes. That’s no ordinary feat!”

I turn around as I hear the sound of more vehicles approaching. Great. Blood is already starting to pour out of my ears and I can feel the familiar ringing in my head returning. I guess this is the most I can do with my powers at once. I hear the banging of Humvee doors and marching of boots against the ground of the field draw closer. I force myself to my feet despite the pain in my head and my body. I count nine soldiers this time, all armed with rifles. This time I highly doubt I have enough energy left over to stop them in their tracks.

All of a sudden they are all sent flying into the air a few feet before they crash back down into the ground. I sigh as a silver blur starts flinging the soldiers all over the place. Good. Four is here.

Four skids to a halt right in front of me, his breathing heavy and sweat on his forehead. He looks at me for a little while before smirking. He raises his hands and folds them behind his head to lean back on and turns his back to me.

“You did all this?” he asks.

“Yes,” I reply. He lets off a whistle.

“Wow. What about that guy,” he says while pointing to a heap of bones burned black to the core. “Please tell me that that isn’t your doing. I would hate to know or even try to imagine how you even did that.”

“Forget about that. Shouldn’t you be helping take out the soldiers in the facility?”

“Well, when I realised that idiot – One – had decided to leave us all the grunt work and follow you guys, I got a little annoyed and cleared them out ahead of time. Or most of them at least.”

“We’ve secured Fourteen. Now we just need to rendezvous with the rest of the team in the hangar and take this place down.”

“Yeah. We need to get One inside that facility first. With any luck she won’t have used the VERTIGO SIX yet. Six and Ten are just clearing out the soldiers in and around the hangar now. Let’s move.”

“Wait,” I say. Four turns back to look at me. “I need to kill Sanders and there is also one more thing I have to check out before we get out of here.”

“First of all, I’m not going to even ask why it’s so important you kill Sanders now. Thirteen and Nine didn’t necessarily instruct us to do so. Secondly what could be more important than escaping now?”

“Just one thing. I saw something in Block D which concerned me. I just want to go in there and make sure there aren’t any other Shadow Soldiers that they’ve been hiding from us.”