Alkalians (61 page)

Struggling up onto his knees, Cain
continues with madness gleaming in his eyes, “They, they say, I
failed them. They are unhappy, but they, they are willing to, to
forgive me. They will give me another chance, another chance to
redeem and avenge myself, to take back what is rightfully mine. But
you, you are in the way, and they want you out of the way. I, I
will not fail them, again. I must, hehe, I must obey them. I must
please them, must honor, must give them gratitude for their
guidance. They, they want, a SACRIFICE!”

***

In a flash of green, Cain enters a
demented form of his battle morph. His armor is darkened and
twisted, a festering green and black, with cracks and folds and
spots of irradiated crystals spiking out. His helm is also
malformed, the fin bent down over half of his face to be a
grotesque mask, half obscuring his wicked grin. His sword flickers
and phases as sickly energy, and his shield and forearm have fused
and warped into a monstrous pincer, snapping like hungry mandibles.
With the radiation energy crackling along his crystal growths, he
cackles maniacally as it fluctuates outward, threatening to reach
the others while they morph and leaving an aura of radiation upon
him.

One of the officers, a Gunman, doesn’t
wait for Cain to attack first when he fires his right arm, an
assault rifle, into his back, puncturing holes of green in him.
Whirling around, Cain winds up a lightning whip from his blade and
whacks the Gunman, tearing a jagged wound across his face and chest
and stunning him before he closes the distance and seizes him in
his pincer. Crushing the arm and ribs he had clamped onto, Cain
lets his radiation surge through him and over the Gunman, zapping
and burning him all over in rapidly accumulating wounds.

Once the wounds turn bloody red, Cain
readies his blade, eager for a fatal thrust through him, before
something else thrusts into his back, deepening and widening one of
his wounds there. He spins around in rage, throwing the Gunman into
the Spearman behind him, and gathers crackling volts of radiation
at the tip of his sword. Before he could cast it upon them, a
different spell blasts him from the side, knocking him down with a
yellow crater of a wound below his shoulder, but he leaps back onto
his feet to face the Magician. When he casts another bolt at him,
Cain puts his open pincer before him to catch it, literally
devouring the magic and spitting it back out, twice as large, as a
sphere of radiation that explodes upon the Magician, dealing heavy
damage as orange wounds split open all over him as he
falls.

Glee showing on his monstrous face,
Cain turns back to the other two officers, and the rising slice of
his sword throws a volt of radiation that cuts through the
Spearman, having him stumble back and both of them in dire
condition. Cain becomes so focused upon them, shambling towards
them with his blade ready, his pincer clacking hungrily, that he
doesn’t notice the swarm of serpents until they are upon him. From
all sides, in varying sizes, the Snake clones sprout up, hissing
furiously, and sting with their fangs all over him, opening up new
wounds or deepening the trauma of the recent ones. He staggers in
surprise, swatting at the clones like they were insects, until one
of them slips around his legs and coils, lassoing them and tripping
him over onto his back as the rest continue biting him.

Only on the ground for a moment, Cain
snarls in rage as his crystal growths activate, and bolts of
radiation spear out of him to slice and shred the serpents
surrounding him. He stands up, his crystals yet crackling with
unstable magic and orange wounds appearing as spots and stripes on
him, with the largest being a fissure almost crossing his spine.
Oblivious to his condition, Cain instead seems aware of whom the
Snake clones came from, and he watches the shadows of the night all
around him, ignoring the falling back officers, waiting for her to
make a move. When he feels a slight tremor through the ground near
him, he tenses, holding off a reaction, until the real Snake bursts
out of the soil behind him, arcing her neck above him and bearing
her razor sharp fangs, and he whirls around with a shout to cut
cleanly through her with his sword.

In the instant after cleaving through
Serpanz sticking out of the ground, Cain appears pleased as he
looks intently at where he cut, expecting wound energy to come
splashing out. Instead, Serpanz’ long length twitches, bends, and
crumples into dirt and rocks before him. He can only stare at the
pile of dirt, not understanding how this Snake, which looked
physically complete unlike the clones made of magic, could have
also been a clone, until a hiss blows over him like an ominous
breeze. Before he can respond, fangs dive into the large wound on
his back, shear and tear through it, and rip back out when Serpanz
recoils from the strike, flicking her forked tongue in and
out.

His wounds then crimson red, a stunned
Cain turns back to Serpanz, meeting the onyx gaze of her snake
eyes, and his expression curls with a growl as he prepares his
magic for a spell to strike back. Instead, to his greater shock,
the radiation energy fails to charge through his wounded body, the
crystals spark with volts spitting at each other, and he is twisted
and bent by a discharge of the radiation, nearly split in half
along where his back wound was. His broken body spouting green
radiation and red wound matter, Cain gasps, his one eye wide with
horror, before he demorphs in a blurry flash of red and collapses
upon the ground unconscious.

***

Shortly after Cain demorphed, Serpanz
returns to her human form and joins the other officers, also
demorphed, in standing around him, looking down at his pale body
clad in the white sheet. “Well, that’s that,” she says
nonchalantly. “Now we can add more counts of attempted murder to
his list of crimes.”

The officers grimly nod before one of
them says, “That was close, on his end. When his body ruptured from
his magic bursting out of his control, I thought he was going to
die.”

“
Yeah, he was lucky, to be
quick enough to demorph before his health completely ran
out.”

Another officer asks, “But, how did
that happen? Why did Cain’s own magic tear him apart?”

Serpanz replies, still looking down at
Cain, “There are two factors behind that. First, when my clones
were attacking him, they weren’t striking at him without aim. They
were picking out points along his body near the crystals to cut the
links of his spell charging system, and my own bite through his
back damaged the system’s core. And second, the magic itself. You
may have noticed how unstable it was, its irradiating power not
natural like other magic. Cain was so mad, he didn’t comprehend the
risk of such power, and when he failed to properly charge it the
power back lashed against him and broke out violently.”

The officers nod again, and the third
looks to Serpanz and asks, “Professor, um, we saw Cain’s battle
morph, and we’ve seen his mentality. Do you think he has, uh, that
one disease?”

“
Yeah. I had my suspicions
before tonight, based on the rumors about his behavior and his new
powers in the tournament today, but now I’m sure of it.” She looks
up to the officers, her tone and expression cold. “Rasputin’s
disease. A mental illness that gradually makes the subject insane,
as well as twist and corrupt his battle morph with unstable powers.
He must have got it from those drugs he takes for his ‘invincible’
abilities. This means he’s an even greater threat to others and
himself than we thought, and we’ll have to respond accordingly.”
She gestures to Cain, and the other officers lift him up as she
commands, “Take him back to the infirmary, and keep him under heavy
guard. We’ll see him off in the morning back to his home state of
Tirez, for treatment of his disease and justice for his
crimes.”

Chapter 17

Indignation of Love

***

The morning after the tournament
portion of the Royale Project, James awakens in the infirmary.
Blinking his blue eyes open, he takes in his surroundings. The
small room is bleached white, like the blankets of his bed and the
sheet he wears, and a small machine beside him is connected to him
by wires, monitoring his pulse and other vital systems. He wonders
what could have woke him when he hears it again, a gentle knocking
on the door across the room from him. Then he notices the nurse
poking her head in from beyond the slightly opened door, asking,
“James Iroshen? I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“
I’d hate to crush your
hopes, so I’ll say you’re not,” he sorely replies. “What is
it?”

“
Um, there’s someone out
here who’d like to see you, if you were awake.”

“
Well, I’m awake now.
Might as well.” James finds himself regretting his given
permission, though, when Irene is let into the room. She is also
yet in a ward patient’s sheet, the curves of her figure showing
when she moves, and he doesn’t like the look of the sneer on her
face. Once the door closed behind her, she coyly asks, “Feeling any
better, my dear?”

“
Yeah, I suppose.
Everything’s healed, except for my pride.” James tries to ignore an
arousal within him from seeing her in a shawl. “What do you want
now?”

“
Oh, I just wanted to
check on my closest ally and friend, that’s all. And tell you the
big news.” Flashing a wicked grin, she comes over and sits on the
bed, rattling James’ nerves further. “It seems Cain’s number has
finally come up. They’ve got him for setting up Matt and Rose
fighting each other, the intent to kill Cynthia back in the gym,
and attacking Professor Serpanz and other officers last night when
they were questioning him. Some more officers came in, just as the
nurses were discharging me, and they carted his sedated form out of
here for the train stations. They’ll be taking him back to Tirez,
where he’ll be made to answer for his crimes.”

His discomfort at Irene’s presence
changes to concerned interest at the news about Cain, and James
lays back to look at the ceiling, sighing. “I was afraid something
like this would happen. If he could have just kept his head down
until we graduated and got out of here. But no, he had to lose his
mind in the arena, and to make matters worse follow it up with
attacking a professor and college officials! I don’t know if even
our families’ money and influence will get him out of this
mess.”

“
Yeah, and what a mess it
is. But at least neither you nor I got caught in it, as well. Are
you glad I convinced you to stay away from him, now?”

“…
Somewhat. I guess I owe
you for that, now that what I feared has happened.”

“
Oh, I was hoping you’d
say something like that, James.” Her tone becoming sultry, Irene
sneaks a hand under the blankets, tracing over James’ leg as she
pulls up his sheet. “I know just the thing you owe me,
then.”

Flustered, and for an instant aroused
again by her touch, James grabs Irene’s arm and yanks it away,
trying to sound firm. “No. Not here. They may have freed you to go,
but I’m still being monitored, if you happened to notice. They see
something like my pulse increase, or for that matter hear us
through the door, we’ll both be in our own kind of
mess.”

“
Aw, no need to fret,
James dear.” Smirking sweetly, she leans down and whispers, “You
know the one nurse out there, with the short green hair? She’s a
fellow student, and has an internship by working directly with the
other nurses here at school.” The smirk grows into a grin with a
twinkle in her golden eyes. “We’ve slept together a few times, and
I could get her in here to join us.”

James groans as logic and lust
struggle against each other in him. “I don’t need to hear about
your past passions, I’ve heard enough of that. Can you tell me
anything more about my cousin?”

Frowning, Irene sits up and says, “Oh,
I don’t know. I think one of the nurses and guards were discussing
how he’s got some kind of disease.”

“
Disease? You mean, like a
mental illness?”

“
Yeah, I guess. One of
them said something like, uh, Rasputin? Whatever that
means.”

“
Rasputin’s disease!?”
Paling, James lies back down from his jolt sitting up, the machine
nearby beeping as his pulse quickens. “Fire Spirit burn it all. It
all makes sense now. Those damned drugs of his. That’s where it all
started!”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
You know, Cain’s special
powers, that make him nearly invincible? They come from special
drugs his parents got for him, but they aren’t on the market. They
were experimental prototypes, developed by our military branch, and
should not have been provided to common citizens, but his parents
used their money and connections to get him some. And now, we’re
finding out
why
they were experimental.” His pulse continues rising on the
machine as he rambles on, “Side effects include headache, nausea,
insomnia, chronic pain, disorientation, and Rasputin’s
disease!”

Taking note of the machine reacting to
James’ temper, Irene suggests, “You may want to calm down, before
the nurses come in here.”

Taking a deep breath,
James tries to, but he says, “I just, I just wish, we had known
sooner. If we could have gotten those drugs away from him,
if
I
had done
more to correct him, then it wouldn’t have come to
this.”