The Infected 1: Proxy (23 page)

Beatdown started with him gently, showing him a simple hold, a grab to the wrist, arm, shoulder, or throat, then how to escape it. As they practiced, her grip would tighten, until she used her full strength and insisted he get out of it. He nearly blacked out when they worked on chokes. Several times. After an hour she called a halt and they both sat on the mat for a few minutes.

"Didn't expect to see you back to training for a bit still - more than your little morning strolls with Karen anyway. She's impressed you know. No one would have blamed you for lounging for a while, next day you're out already working. People notice that kind of crap. All inspirational and stuff." She grinned and patted him on the leg.

"So let's inspire them by working on some kicks. You need them and haven't done hardly anything there yet. You were too injured before and could barely move. That lame excuse is gone now, so let's get to it." She didn't let up for another hour, then she sent him off to get a shower, slapping him on the rear when she did.

He'd have complained about sexual harassment, but since that was about all he might ever get again as far as sex went, he didn't want to alienate her.

At diner he tried to be polite and not act all hurt around Penny, who seemed fine again. A girl thing, he thought, break up with a guy and be fine seconds later. Guys felt that kind of thing more, he knew. Even if it hadn't been a real break-up, it still hurt. Better him now than her later, Brian reminded himself and finished eating quickly.

Then he had hours in which to do nothing. He went to his room to mope and be lonely, chuckling at himself as he walked back to his room. Sitting on his bed he wondered if he should ask for a TV. The big one in the hospital room had disappeared - back to Prime's he suspected - when he'd started spending most of his time with Penny. Sighing he relaxed and laid back on the bed. He didn't even hurt that much, considering everything.

His skin started crawling suddenly and he heard a massive crack, the walls shook like a bomb had gone off, seconds later another boom followed. The vibrations shook the entire structure.

Then he found himself standing in a hallway, one that looked a lot like what they had on floor nine. Prime, looking wild and wearing nothing but an insane look in his eyes, backhanded him into the wall.

"How dare you!" he screamed, his hands starting to glow with a brilliant black glow. He pointed both hands at Brian, his eyes glowing with that same blackness, hard to describe, Brian thought to himself. He rolled, his shoulder and back screaming at him. The impact against the wall had hurt, but the right side of his head had gone numb. How hard did you have to get hit to make it not even feel like anything?

A blast of energy tore into the floor where he'd just been. Prime didn't seem to care that whoever he wanted to kill had disappeared, he kept after Brian, moving faster than a regular person could track half the time, finally grabbing him by the throat with one hand, the other glowing darkly, pointed at his head. This grab hurt a lot more that the one that Marcia had used on him, but the move he had to do didn't require him to be stronger than the class five, just be willing to let his body deform out of the way. He jerked, head and body going back, pulling his neck free, the big man's hand closing rapidly, nearly taking his voice box out with the move.

Prime - Scott he recalled Karen telling him - aimed a punch at him, which he ducked instinctively, and the back hand that followed it up. Brian moved based mainly on the fact that the move could be done, not that Prime would do it. He didn't have time to try and read the next action, he darted back, his right hand up defensively.

The golden Adonis darted forward, a move that Marcia had used before to teach him something, which his body did instantly now. Fingers slightly splayed, he stabbed forward, hitting Prime in the right eye. Brian didn't wait to see if it worked, he just kicked the man in the groin twice, which seemed to hurt him a bit, and then stomped at his knees.

Prime went down, but started back up almost instantly. Brian didn't let up, knowing that he wouldn't be there if the man hadn't been trying to kill someone. He hit him, making himself use his left hand too, afraid that Prime might be trying to kill Bridget or one of his other friends. That didn't matter. He had to hold his ground, because he couldn't outrun the man.

He couldn't outfight him either, it seemed, because he just shrugged off the blows and stood again, ready to attack. Another quick blow knocked Brian three feet back, into the wall behind him, which bowed under the force of the move. Brian gasped, almost throwing up from the force of it. He couldn't breathe, but he could still kick, he hoped. Another foot toward the groin, which Prime blocked with his knee, sending pain shooting up his shin where they connected. It felt like kicking a lamp post, Brian thought.

A lamp post that wanted to kill him.

Hands and eyes glowing, he moved to point at Brian again, moving slower when he did it than when he punched. Brian jumped in, feeling the world close around him, going dark. Having nothing left, he bit the large man on the nose, which made him jump back, grabbing his face.

"Ouch!" The word came out slightly sullen, as if shocked anyone would do something like that.

Brian didn't stop, kicking at his exposed groin again, hitting him solidly this time. When he went to his knees, Brian turned and ran. Just as he rounded a corner, a black bolt destroyed the wall behind him. He kept going, people coming out of rooms to see what had happened. A naked Prime shot around the corner, moving faster than Brian could, but not by that much, thanks to having to negotiate the turns of the hallway. Seeing a nice lamp on a table, Brian grabbed it and launched it at the man who casually batted it away, closing on him.

Brian held his hands up to try and fight again, feeling a bit desperate, the golden man moving toward him, looking ready to kill still. Before anything else could happen, something knocked the large man down. Hard. Making a meaty thunk sound when it happened. A small man with pale skin, black hair, and a business suit, walked out into the room they'd gone into, the floor one common area, from a door that had stood open. As Prime tried to get up the small man waved his hand, causing another meaty thunk.

"Glory... a little help here please?" The man spoke calmly, that deep cold kind of calm that Brian always imagined James Bond would have if he were real. Without an English accent, of course. This guy didn't have an accent at all.

The world went blue as the glowing woman walked around the corner, opening up on him. Love for her flashed through him, and a sense of compassion for everyone and everything flowed, touching deep places he didn't know existed. It made him feel good that she bothered to include Prime, unlike last time, when she'd used her powers to protect the men that had attacked him, leaving him even more vulnerable. After twenty seconds Brian realized something important. He hadn't left yet. Meaning that whomever it was Prime had tried to kill was still in danger.

He walked forward through the light, going toward the naked man, who had risen to his knees. Pulling his right hand back he hit the man on the chin, and didn't stop until he went down. Even then he stayed, he turned into the blue light. The larger man wasn't unconscious or anything, he'd literally just taken that much force to knock over.

"I haven't shifted out! I don't know who he tried to kill, but they're still in danger. We have to stop him. I need to run..." She held the blue light on him as he turned and fled. As he got in the elevator Prime crawled to his knees, all of the blue light coming at Brian instead.

Brilliant.

When the door closed, Brian hit nine by instinct, then realized that Prime might know he lived there, being on team three. He needed help and to get the person - a woman he thought - to safety. He canceled the decent on floor six and went up one to five. He ran out of the elevator yelling.

"Lauren! Team two! Help!" He ran through their hallway, surrounded by three individuals suddenly. Lauren loomed in front of him. To his relief Bridget stood beside her. Thank god! He rushed forward and hugged the girl, ignoring the pain.

He spoke in short hand. "Prime's flipped, trying to kill someone, I took their place, but he's coming. I don't think team one got that I wasn't attacking him... I need to draw him off and stop him, but we need to get the person safe first. I only know one person that can do that for sure." He stared at Lauren. No one else blinked. Tobin ran up as he spoke and so did Charles.

Charles didn't hesitate. "Proxy, what do you need?"

"Safety. Then I can go back to mine and see what I can do from there."

They all went into Goblin's room, being someone that Prime wouldn't expect to have hidden anyone. They all agreed that Scott Chambers didn't even know Tobin Peterson existed at all. Then, finally, a tingle came over Brian and he found himself sprawled on his own bed. Limping, he got up and ran back to the elevator. The person might be safer now, but that didn't mean this would be over. Now Prime would come for him in his rage, having stolen his prize... or whatever. Maybe not, but Brian couldn't just leave team one to fight the man alone. He tried to remember what Karen had told him about Marcia beating Prime in a fight. No specifics. Something else he'd heard niggled at him... She wasn't in his power class, but she cheated.

Penny had said that.

Well, that made sense. Cheat. He could do that he decided. He ran through his options, guns and bombs, rockets and clubs... Poisons came to mind. Would anything work on the large man? He didn't know, but he knew who would. He ran to the elevator and went to floor seven, yelling again.

"Hey! Prime's gone bug-nuts! Is there anything, any drug, that we can use to calm him down? Anyone?" He didn't have to explain more, everyone seemed to just understand.

Doctor Kern scurried to a locked cabinet and quickly made up a syringe. He didn't even have to look anything up, he just knew, Brian realized, making him wonder how often things like this happened around the base. The man ran over and started to pass the needle to him, then froze.

"Crap, Brian! What the hell happened?" Brian shook his head, and looked down, blood from his nose poured down his front. Dribbled really, he saw, ignoring it for now.

"Prime. He's trying to kill someone, don't know who. I took their place, then Lady Glory attacked me again. At least her power isn't too harsh, or I'd be dead by now. Some day she's going to have to get that I'm not the bad guy, you know? Anyway, I think we have the person safe now, but I'm betting Prime's not done yet. He's going to come for me, I think, for getting in his way. Maybe someone else, but..." Brian held out his hand. "I have to stop him."

Doc Kern grimaced and handed it over. "Hit him in the neck if you can, just under the ear, either side. He's armored arms, legs, and chest and heals wicked fast. This should take about twenty seconds to drop him and last an hour, maybe less, so whatever you have to do, that's your time frame. Try not to die, I've put too much time in on you already."

Brian didn't laugh at that, he just nodded instead. "Do my best."

It wouldn't do to over promise after all.

He headed to level one, not knowing what had been happening. When he got there chaos reigned. Two bodies lay on the floor, and Lady Glory stood, her back against a wall as Prime held up a table as a shield, a nice one made of real wood, not like the fairly cheap particle board ones team three had all over the place, and walked toward her. The bright blue glow made it hard to see her face, impossible really, but her body language spoke of fear.

Brian took a fighting stance, painfully raising his left arm, which had taken enough new damage it felt numb in the places it didn't scream in pain, in his right hand, he held the syringe, point back, hiding it in his hand. He used his teeth to remove the plastic cap and spit it out to the side so that he wouldn't choke on it when Prime hit him. Then he took a deep breath, wondering if it would be his last one, it shuddered as he exhaled, his back stabbing him sharply from the pressure.

"Prime! It looks like Beatdown was right about you after all... You really are a giant pussy, aren't you? You have to pick on little girls who don't even have real powers to avoid the real fight behind you... I'm glad there are no cameras here, if people saw this, they'd know how useless you really are. Only good for getting cats out of trees and helping to change dirty diapers." Brian had been ready to keep this up, trying to wear away at the man's ego for a while, knowing his narcissism would have to kick in eventually.

That didn't happen.

Prime turned, dropped the table, flowed into the air about four foot off the ground and flew at him like only a giant naked man could. A frightening sight that Brian kind of wished he'd never seen. Prime, wild eyed, actually flew, not jumped or ran, speeding up as he traveled in the air. Brian held his pose, lips going back in a grin that he hoped looked cool, because he couldn't think of anything witty to yell, and stabbed forward with his nearly useless left arm. Prime knocked it out of the way with his right hand, not seeing that Brian had brought his own right across his chest. Or, just as likely, not caring.

He hit Brian hard, still accelerating toward the wall, when the needle found the soft spot on the neck and plunged the drugs home.

Suddenly, just before impact, the giant man slowed, pulling Brian to his chest.

He lost consciousness as the wall buckled behind him, Prime crushing the air out of his lungs first and then, it felt like the life, out of him. He came to gasping, still in the wall. Alive for some reason. A thick padding, meant to stop fire from spreading, had cushioned him in part, leaving him intact and only a little broken. Something occurred to him about the speed of impact and what had just happened, what had to have taken place, but he knew he'd have to analyze it later. No time just then. It was work, but he got his mind to refocus on what needed to be done. His ribs felt crushed, but he could breath, if shallowly. He pushed the woozy, nude man until he fell out of the hole and then, slowly, climbed out after him.