/d/

[Death Dark]

     As I’m using the restroom, I hear a commotion outside.  Due to the fact that I’m standing while urinating, which tends to be loud, and the door is shut, I can’t quite make out what’s going on.  I figure it’s just the usual assortment of things; we tend to get a little loud sometimes.  I finish with what I’m doing, flush, and begin to wash my hands.  Things seem to have died down out there, but something’s off.  Everyone’s being very quiet, and there’s someone talking very authoritatively.  I dry my hands off, and exit the bathroom.
     The first thing I see is two men dressed in dark clothing standing by the door.  They’re wearing ski-masks and bear guns.  The next thing I notice is that one of them is holding my girlfriend with a gun to her head.
     My vision blurs, and I begin to feel myself lose control.  The man not holding my girlfriend points his gun at me.  He says something to me, but it’s as if he’s speaking to me through a mass of water.
     I see myself move.  Before I know it, I’ve moved half the length of the large room to where I have a clear path to the two of them.  I see myself move forwards, getting in close.
     I see a flash.  The sound of an explosion rips through the water that separates us.  I see myself falling.  I hear my girlfriend crying out.

     There’s no pain.  There’s only darkness.
     Wait, what is this place?  Where am I?
     I’m not where I need to be.  I’m not where she is.
     I can’t die yet.  I refuse.

     My eyes snap open.  I rise up off the floor.  The men turn to me, their faces pale in fear.
     I move before I know I’ve told myself to move.  The first man’s head crushes easily against the door.  I turn to the second one.  He has released my girlfriend.  He fires.  I move.  I clutch his throat.  I clench my fist, and rip out the flesh in my hand.  He falls to the ground.  I feel a hand touch my shoulder.  I lurch around and strike out.  My hand stops short of her face.
     My senses suddenly fade back in.  I stumble a step or two, and clutch my chest.  There’s a great pain.  I cough blood onto the floor.  I slump to my knees, and fall on my side.  I look up to see my dear sitting down beside me.  I crawl over to her and place my head in her lap.  She brushes my hair with her hand, and I feel myself begin to fade.
     As I slip away, I hear her softly say, “Is anyone going to call an ambulance?”

[Death Dark]

     My eyes slowly opened, but I couldn’t see.  All I was confronted with was darkness.  I tried to move, but found my hands bound behind my back, and my feet bound.  I didn’t know what it was that bounds them; neither metal nor plastic.  It felt slightly comfortable, as if it were—
     I heard a sound.  I looked in the direction of the sound.  There was more of it.  A loud tapping, as if someone with a stick were hitting the ground.  The sound was hard, yet sounded as if the hard exterior contained some sort of softer interior.
     I sat up; still trying to figure out what there is around me.
     “Mother, can it see us?”  The voice was soft, caring, and beautiful beyond belief.  I could tell the bearer of this heavenly voice was young.
     “No, dear, but it can hear us.”  This voice was sharp and raspy.  The bearer of this harsh voice was surely old.
     I attempted to speak, only to find my mouth covered as well.
     “Must we eat him while not at least allowing him to know his killers?”
     “There’s no point.  We’ll just eat him.”
     The sounds continued to grow near, until they stopped a short distance away.
     “It…it’s a human.”
     “Of course it is, dear.  What else did you think it was?”
     “I…don’t know.”
     “As you pass into adolescence, you must consume a human to fulfill your power and expose your true potential.  Now, consume this mortal as he lives, and receive your birthright.”
     The beautiful voice stayed silent.
     “Why do you wait?”
     “I…I don’t want to kill him.”
     “WHAT!?!”  There was a short burst of rapid tapping.  “What do you mean, girl?  You don’t want to kill a simple mortal man?  You are to become one of us!  You are to become liken unto the gods themselves!”
     “I do not care, Mother!”  Her voice was emotionally charged.  “I…don’t want to hurt him.”
     “I cannot believe your insolence!  If you will not eat him now, you shall be sealed in this chamber until either you do or the both of you ROT!”
     “Then seal me in, Mother!  I shall die with my honor!”
     The older voice hissed.  “Your honor is long dead.”
     There was more rapid tapping that faded into the distance, followed by what sounded like a stone door slamming shut.
     There was much silence.  It was interrupted by the sound of more tapping drawing near.  I feared the worst, but knew that I was in no position to fight back.  I felt a smooth, soft hand place itself on my cheek.  As it touched me, I felt chills run down my spine, and my hair stood on-end.  The hand reached to the binding on my mouth, and gently pulled it away.
     “Are you that hopeless, mortal, that you do not even fight back?”
     “What could I have done?  What can I do still?”
     The beautiful voice was silent again.  I began to regret my words that had made her quiet.
     “You don’t think she’d really leave me in here, do you?”
     “I think she would.”
     “Really?”
      “I’m not sure what kind of society this is here, but from what I get from the whole eating humans as a rite of passage, I wouldn’t put it past her.”
     The voice was silent again.  I mentally cursed myself again, but I couldn’t help but to answer her questions with the utmost truth.
     She was still quiet.  I wasn’t sure what was going through her head, but I could at least make headway.
     “It’s awfully dark in here.”
     “Yes, I suppose it is.  Our kind can see in the dark.”
     “That must be useful.”
     “Yes.  Here, let me get a torch lit.”
     There was some more tapping that moved around behind me.  A flame lit to my left, and I had to close my eyes to keep them from being burnt out.  There was more tapping, and another one came up to my right.  Still more tapping brought the noise back in front of me.  I slowly opened my eyes, adjusting them to the light.
     As I caught my first glimpse of what stood before me, my eyes snapped fully open to take in the horrendously beautiful sight before me.  There stood a creature with the lower body of a spider, and the upper body of a bare girl in her mid-teens.  Her head bore many red eyes, two of which in their human positions, and short silky white hair that hung over one side of her face.  Her lower body made my mind cry out to run, but the smooth, fair, and beautiful upper body was as beautiful as the voice that it brought forth.
     “I…I’m sorry.  Maybe the torches weren’t the best idea after all…”
     I couldn’t say a word.  My mind was still in turmoil against itself deciding whether this thing before me was a vicious monster or a beautiful maiden.
     She looked dejectedly away.  “I can understand if you think I am a monster; I think the same of myself often.”
     The word, “No,” escaped my mouth in a gasp.
     She glared at me.
     “What am I, then?”
     Before I could manage any sort of subtlety, the word ripped itself from my mouth.  “Beautiful.”
     She blushed heavily and quickly turned away.  I shook my head, trying to regain control of my mind.
     “I’m sorry,” I said.
     “No, don’t be.”
     She turned back to me, her cheeks slowly fading to their soft color instead of the rosy red they were.  It felt like an eternity that I was trapped inside of her eyes, my mind void of all thought.
     “Do you believe that we’ll die in here?”
     “Perhaps.”
     “That wasn’t a very reassuring answer.”
     “Well, at this point, we probably will.  You’re standing there looking cute, and I’m sitting here looking at you.  Not much surviving going on yet.”
     She walked up to me, and tore the binding away from my feet.  Now that I could see it, it appeared to be spider silk.  She walked up to me, and pressed her bare chest into my face as she reached around to tear away the binding from my hands.  As she finished pulling it away, she realized what she had done to me, and backed away quickly.
     “Oh, I’m sorry!”
     “It’s, uh, perfectly alright.”
     “What are we to do about our confinement?”
     I stood up and scratched my head.  I was just wearing brown cloth pants and a belt at this point.  Even if we could get out, the spider-people didn’t seem to like humans much.  I’d need a way to defend myself.
     I looked around the room to see other bodies of dead people from the past.  Some of them were wearing armor and weapons.  The girl-thing noticed me noticing them.
     “Their weapons weren’t taken away from them; why were yours taken from you?”
     “I didn’t have any weapons.”
     “Where are you from?”
     “I…don’t think you’d know.  I’m not sure where I am now, but where I’m from this whole place would be but a story; not even one of the well known ones.”
     She was silent for a moment.
     “How are you going to get back?”
     “I don’t know.”
     “How did you get here?”
     “I fell asleep.”
     “Do…do you think you’ll ever wake up from this?”
     I walked over and picked up the best looking sword off of the dead bodies.  As I grasped it, violet flame emitted over the blade.
     “I hope not.”  I turned to her.  “Let’s go see about that door.”

[Death Dark]

     I couldn’t believe it was finally happening.  After years of hard work and secrecy, it was now the final hour.  I brushed a piece of lint off of my black uniform jacket and turned to my comrade beside me.
     “This is it.”
     “Are you really going to do this?”
     “Yes.”
     I turned around to the single camera crew that I allowed to be in the command center with us while we began final preparations.
     “…there are still rumors that the detonation is just an elaborate hoax, but from what we have seen so far, he fully intends to go through with what he has claimed.”
     I turned my attention away, back to the monitors that were logging the preparations.

     It all started many years ago.  I don’t remember how long ago it was, but it was that day that my darling died.  I had been away on duty, and I returned home to find her lying on the floor in a puddle of blood.  I rushed over to her to find her still alive.  I sat by her bedside at the hospital all night, and by morning she had left me forever.
     My comrade found me days later sitting on my porch, still in my uniform.
     “How long have you been sitting here?” he asked as he sat in the other chair.
     “I don’t know.”
     “How long do you plan on sitting here?”
     “I don’t’ know.”
     He leaned back in his chair and began to rock slightly.  I stared at the porch as I had been doing for however long it had been.
     The words spilt forth from my lips, “What is the point?”
     “Of what?”
     “Of living.  We wander the face of this world, knowing we have naught but to die.  Everything we do in this world stays here, and we fade into nothing.  We live a cursed existence, a people destined for eternal suffering, never to find the answers we need.”
     “That’s not true.”
     “It is.”
     “After this life, there is another we may live.  This is just the introduction to that life.”
     “Fairytales of the grown.”
     “Mock me all you want.”
     I didn’t answer him.  I knew I didn’t have anything to say but harsh words, and I knew he didn’t deserve them.
     “Could you help me with something?”
     “What is it?”
     “Can you help me destroy the world?”
     He stopped for a moment, in a short burst of surprise.
     “There’s no point.  God will stop you.”
     “Then let him stop me.  If I am right, we will be forever free of our obligation to live a meaningless life.  If you are right, then no harm will be done.”
     He paused for a moment, considering my offer.
     “Very well.  I shall assist you.”

     The camera crew was finally done broadcasting for a few minutes.  The correspondent turned to me.
     “You’re really going to go through with this?”
     I simply looked at him.
     “Why?  What have we done to deserve this?”
     “This is not a punishment to you; this is a blessing to your children, and your children’s children.  They will never have to suffer; they will never have to perish.  I am freeing our people from our miserable existence.”
     “You’re psychotic.”
     “It doesn’t matter.  The day’s mine.”
     He shook his head and walked off.
     I walked over to one of the officers manning the monitoring systems.
     “How is everything?”
     “All systems a clear; all fail-safes are working properly.  As of now we are ready to detonate.”
     “Understood.  Begin the countdown.”
     “With honor.”
     The camera man turned his camera back on, and began to follow me as I walked over to the large screen that I had been standing in front of earlier.  The screen changed to a red screen, with a counter in white characters counting down.  Ten minutes.
     I took a key out of my jacket pocket, and placed it into a slot on the board before me.  The clear case directly above the key hole opened up, exposing the red abort button.
     I turned to the camera and leaned against the panel.
     “If this day is God’s this button shall be pressed.  The automatic systems were designed such that once the countdown begins backups upon backups upon backups assure that no matter what could possibly go wrong, the sequence will not be interrupted.  The only way to stop it is for this button to be pressed.”

     I had announced it one day.  I was invited to theological and philosophical talk show, and the religious man amongst them began asking his questions.
     “Do you think that God exists?”
     “No.  I choose not to believe, but only to know.”
     “So, what do you believe is the point of life?”
     “There is none.”
     “Then why are you here today?  Why are you still living if there is no point to it?”
     “Because I have made my life have meaning.  Due to my life, no one else shall ever have to find purpose in life.  I will make it to where no one will ever have to suffer again.”
     “I don’t understand what you mean.  Do you intend that you are God?”
     “No, I merely wish to do all of humanity a favor.”
     “How do you propose we go about erecting this perfect world?”
     “Let me work.”
     “Pardon?”
     “Three days from now, at noon exactly, I will detonate a web of bombs that will destroy the entire world.”
     He was filled with terror.  “You can’t be serious.”
     “I will free us all from the obligation of living and bringing more of our own into this world to suffer.”
     He was shaking.  “Why would you do such a thing?”
     “Out of compassion.  I realized years ago what a miserable existence we lead.  I no longer wanted to be a part of it.  I almost killed myself.  In a sudden epiphany, I realized that I was being greedy.  Everyone should be as free of their burdens as I wish to be.”
     “Y-y-you can’t!”
     “I can.  I will.  Nothing will stop me.”
     The man was desperate.  “No!”
     “This is what I wish to free all of us from.  You claim to believe in this magical being that can fix all of your problems; a being that has all of the answers.  Yet, when the time comes to where you should have faith that he will save you, you become as afraid as the rest of us.  I will free you from this illusion you have placed before your own eyes, and clarify it for everyone who will be there to witness it.”
     I got up, and there was a sudden uproar of screams and terror.  Some people rushed the stage, but I turned to them and as commandingly as possible spoke to them.
     “HALT!”  They stopped.  “I do not suggest you do anything.  I have a transmitter connected to my heart.  It transmits a signal to the detonator, and keeps it from going off before I give it the order.  If my heart stops beating, it stops transmitting, and the detonator releases.  If it is destroyed or removed, it stops transmitting, and the detonator releases.  There is nothing you can do now.”

     The last few minutes came up on the countdown.  The camera man had set up his tripod and was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room.  The reporter stood by the camera, microphone in hand, boding.
     As the timer hit a minute and thirty seconds, the camera man stood up, and walked over to his camera, shifting it to where it could see both the timer and I.
     “So, this is it,” he muttered.
     “It is,” I answered.  I turned back to the screen to watch the time tick away.  “How are all systems?”
     “Functioning properly.  All fail-safes functioning properly.”
     “Good…”
     The room was silent as the seconds slipped away.
     “To Hell with this,” the reporter cried out.  He lunged for the abort button.  I turned to him as I pulled my pistol from its hostler.  I grabbed the man by the throat with my left hand, and fired into his heart.  As he fell to the floor, my comrade pulled out his pistol.  Without hesitation, I swung my firing arm around, and unleashed a bullet into his head.
     I glanced at the timer, and then back at the camera.
     “Goodbye,” I said.
     The timer hit zero.
     I waited.
     “What the hell’s going on?”
     “Sir!  The transmission was interrupted at the splitter box!  As the transmission went through it, the unit suffered a power surge!”
     “The transmission should still have gone through.”
     “The monitor stations are reporting that the transmission did go through…but…”
     “But, what, officer?”
     “The transmission was altered.  All of the bombs have been permanently disarmed.”  He turned from his screen and to me.  “We can’t set them off.”
I turned back around, and looked at my fallen comrade.
     “Then…this day is God’s.”  I looked at the gun in my hand, the blood of the two men on its barrel.  “And I must atone for my sins.”
The camera watched me silently as I put the barrel against my eye, and pulled the trigger.

[Forte]

[Death Dark]

     I stumbled out of the building.  Of course, being in the shower when the alarm was raised meant I was the only one left.  Everyone else had already been evacuated, and now I was here with these Space Pirates attacking the local Galaxy Federation troopers.  I began running down the street, and stopped as I came to something strange.  There was something in the road.  It was like a glowing blue jelly with electricity coming off of it.  I crouched down beside it to look at it, completely forgetting about the invasion.  I reached out towards it, and the hair on my arm stood on end.  There was something powerful to this stuff.  Despite what may have been the smart thing to do, my curiosity overcame me, and I reached out to touch the substance before me.
     Extreme pain suddenly rushed through my body.  It felt as if my flesh were being consumed.  I couldn’t move my arm; it was stuck in this hellish jelly that I had so foolishly stuck it in.  My head was swimming from the rush, and I yelled out in pain.
     Suddenly the pain subsided, and my vision cleared.  I fell over, clutching my arm.  I looked at it to find my lower arm was a shiny silver color now, with a red cracks spread throughout it.  I got back up into a crouching position, making sure not to use my arm.
     I heard something behind me.  As I frantically turned around, I fell back down again, using my good arm to pull myself away.
     Before me stood a guy in a strange suit.  It was an orange-ish brown color, with large balls on the shoulders, and there was a gun where his right hand should’ve been.  He reached up to beside his visor, and seemed to press a button there while looking at me.  After a few seconds, he turned and walked away.
     I figured he wasn’t going to hurt me, so I got up.  I felt a wave of energy beside me, and turned quickly to find two Space Pirates standing roughly where the strange jelly just was.  They completely ignored me, and started firing at the man in the suit.
     Something inside of me reacted, and I lunged for the closest one.  I grabbed at his neck with my bad arm, and instead of clutching it, the cracks glowed brightly blue, and my hand dissolved away his flesh.  I turned to the other one to find a large yellow ball of energy blow him away.
     I turned to the man in the suit.  He nodded and began walking away again.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  What had I just done?  What was that strange substance?
     I began following the man in the suit.  I figured that he could probably defend himself, so anywhere he went was probably safer than anywhere I could go alone.  He walked slowly and confidently, almost eerily so, making it easy for me to catch up to him.  I stayed a good bit back, not knowing if he thought of me as a threat or not.
     As we approached the next intersection, a Space Pirate tank pulled around the corner.  I cursed under my breath, and the man in the suit took off running towards it, energy gathering in the gun on his right arm.  As if I hadn’t lost enough hope in the situation, the tank swung its gun around towards me.  I felt my stomach sink to my knees, and I braced myself for the impact, putting my arms up in front of me out of natural reaction.  I heard the cannon fire, and felt the shock of the blast hitting.
     But, I felt neither pain nor death.  I opened my eyes to find a blue barrier emitting from my bad arm.  The barrier disappeared, the cracks going back to red, and I put my arm down.
     I looked back at the tank to see the man in the suit behind it.  He unleashed his charged energy at it, breaking something off the back, and quickly fired a missile into it.  The tank went up in a fiery explosion.  I waited for the fire to clear slightly, but the man in the suit was already gone.
     “Citizen!” I heard behind me.
     I turned around to find a trooper in his white and blue battlesuit.  I was grateful a sign of hope finally showed up, but I didn’t know how to properly respond.  He walked up to me and looked at my bad arm.
     “What happened to your arm?”
     “There was this strange stuff in the street.  It was blue, and was crackling and such, and—“
     “Don’t tell me you touched Phazon.”
     “Is that what that is?”
     The man placed his free hand on his forehead.  I noticed then that his right hand had a gun on it as well.
     “There was a guy in a suit that just went through here.”
     “Really?  I was certain we were the first squadron to be deployed here.”
     “Yeah, it was weird.  It was this orange-brown color, and had large balls on the shoulders, but he had a gun on his arm like you guys.”
     The trooper chuckled.
     “That’s no man – that’s Samus Aran.”
     “Really?  I thought she’d be more…feminine.”
     “That’s everyone’s first reaction.  Come on; let’s get you to a medic to see about that arm.”

     Later, I sat aboard a Galactic battleship that had come into the region and took care of the Space Pirates.  I was in the medical sector in a small examination room by myself.  Most of the doctors were busy tending to the citizens and troopers that were actually injured.  After an hour or so of waiting, a woman in a white lab coat walked in.  She was tall and thin, and had long blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail.  I could see her blue eyes through the glasses she wore.
     “I’m sorry that it’s taken so long.”
     “It’s okay.”
     “I also apologize; I’m not a doctor.  I’m a Phazon researcher.  They still couldn’t get a doctor free, and I heard about you over here, so I offered to come and take a look.”
     “Okay.”
     She walked over and set her clipboard on the counter, and turned to me.  She took my hand and began poking and prodding my arm.
     “Strange…” she muttered.  She looked closely at the cracks, and at my fingers, and finally released my hand.
     “Interesting.  It seems that you’ve had an alternative reaction to Phazon.  Instead of it doing what it normally does and corrode the flesh from your bones, you’ve absorbed it, and it’s mutated your arm.”
     I have a feeling that my reaction to this news wasn’t as horrified as it should’ve been.
     “If you haven’t noticed yet, your skin’s as hard as a rock, and there’s a lot of energy coming out of those cracks.  Are you having any pain?”
     “No.”
     “Has your arm reacted to anything?”
     “Earlier, some Space Pirates warped beside me.  Out of instinct, I attacked the closest one.  These cracks glowed blue, and it was as if my hand dissolved their flesh.”
     “Hm…”
     “And then, later, as I was following Samus, a tank fired at me.  I went like this, and a barrier came up that blocked the blast.”
     “Interesting.  Have you tried using the arm to do anything else?”
     “No, that’s it, and I didn’t even try to use it then.”
     “Okay.  I want you to come with me back to the lab, and I want to run some tests on you.  You don’t have to come, of course, but I think we may be able to figure out what’s going on with that arm.”

     To be continued.

[Death Dark]

     I cried out in rage.  I unleashed my fury through my voice as loud as I could.  I felt the energy flowing through me.  I could feel it amplifying.  I could feel myself losing control.  I wanted this power, I wanted this energy.  I could feel the energy compressing.  I could feel the energy leaking out.  I looked my foe in the eye, and roared at him, my hair standing on end as I did.
     A wave of the energy shot down my body, and sprung at my foe with the force of a cannon firing.  He began to run, but I couldn’t even comprehend how quickly my feet were moving across the ground.  I caught up to him in a blur.  I roared again as I began to swing at him.  I felt the energy moving down my arm, and I made contact.  The energy blew off of my hand, shattering his skull as I hit.
     It wasn’t enough.  It wasn’t enough.  I had more energy.  I had to let it out!
     I raised my fists to the sky and cried in frustration, feeling the ground crack beneath my feet.  I slammed my fists down into the ground, shattering it beneath me.  The energy went back to my feet, and I took off over the rocky ground.  I didn’t know where I was going, but I was going to kill.
     Up in the air, I saw a fighter jet approaching quickly.  I punched the ground, rocketing myself into the air.  The plane tried to move, but as it began to turn, I was surrounded in energy, and slammed through it.  As I fell back down, I could barely hear the doomed pilot saying something, right before the aircraft erupted into a ball of fire.
     I didn’t try to land properly; I just let my body slam into the ground at full force, creating a crater beneath me.  I jumped out almost instantly, and took off again.  There has to be more.  There must be!
     I channeled more and more energy to my legs.  They were already moving so quickly that instinct only was keeping them going properly, but it wasn’t enough.  They weren’t moving fast enough.  My eyes glazed over as the environment around me blurred into a single swarm of color.
     I was ripped from my daze as a bomb collided with me.  The explosion was enough to wake me, but it didn’t even begin to faze me.  I burst from the smoke, and landed on the top of the fighter.  I plunged my hand through the cockpit cover, and ripped the pilot out.  The beast in me took control, and I ripped his throat out with my teeth.
     The fighter behind me began firing at me.  I threw the pilot’s body away, and turned to the other ship.  I ran down the ship I was on, and sunk my hand into the hull.  I jumped off, and slammed the ship I had been on into the one behind it.  I fell through the flames of the collision, and saw the ground troops moving in to my left.
     In a blur, I was on the ground and off towards them.  I slammed full force into the first tank, throwing it into the troop carriers behind it.  I lunged at the tank to my right, and reached through the hull, ripping into the driver’s throat.  The barrel turned to me still, sitting merely inches from my face.  As it began to fire, I unleashed my rage through my mouth once more, and the explosion instead ripped through the interior of the tank.
     I turned and slammed the blast from the other tank out of the way.  I ran to it and slammed my head into it, sending it rolling into the sands.
     I was peppered with shots from ground troops.  I turned to them, and roared.  “YOUR BLOOD SHALL BE ON MY HANDS!!!”
     I could feel the earth quake as I took off towards them.

[Sepuku.exe]

Your last one was kinda short, but I guess it was ok.

[Death Dark]

     I watched from my position on the nearby mountaintops as the fledgling below held the last of the soldiers in his hand.  The soldier was squirming around, frantically trying to free himself.  The fledgling cried out in frustration, and crushed the man’s throat in his hand.  The body fell to the ground, and he roared like an animal, sending the bodies, vehicles, and other debris flying.
     I dropped off my perch, and in a burst was down on the ground with him.  He noticed my arrival and was upon me as soon as I had a solid place to stand.
     He struck out at me, but I grabbed his wrist.
     “Stop this now.  You’ve caused enough trouble already.”
     “More!  MORE!  MORE POWER!”
     The earth shook again as he gathered massive amounts of energy to him.  He broke free from my grasp and struck at me again.  I hopped back.  As he missed, he lunged forward, charging at me.  I placed a hand on his shoulder and slammed him into the sand.
     “This ends whenever you feel like it.”
     The sand burst up around me, and I was forced to retreat a ways to gain clear vision again.  I turned back to the cloud of dust.  I could hear him coughing, trying to figure out where I went.  When the dust cleared, he was whipping his head around like an animal trying to find me.  His eyes locked on.
     I leaned to my left, and his fist passed over my shoulder.  I stood back up, pushing his arm out of the way, and back-handed him across the face.  As he flipped, he kicked at my head.  I grabbed his foot and threw it to the rest of him.  He sprang back up quickly, and pounced on me.  I grabbed his wrists, and he bit at me.
     “You really should regain your composure, and stop acting like a fool.”
     He swung a foot around and kicked me in the shin.
     “Don’t try my patience.”
     I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the ground.  The impact kicked up a cloud of dust and created a crater beneath me.  I once again made my exit, and waited for him to recover.  I still hadn’t hit him with enough force to even faze him, but if he had a clear head he’d know I was holding back.
     I felt the ground shifting, and leapt back onto one of the destroyed tanks.  He burst out of the ground and came at me again.  He unleashed a flurry of strikes, any one of them enough to bring down a building, but none of them reaching me.  As each came, I caught his fist in my hand, neutralizing the force.
     I could hear the transmission in the air.  The report had come that the unit was destroyed.  They were sending in another, far more capable force.  They wouldn’t be enough to stop this man.  I had to do it.
     “Listen to me!  Calm down now, and I can save you!”
     “DIIIIIIE!!!”
     He struck the tank, shooting it out from under me.  He yelled as he swung at me again.  I could see the energy moving down his arm.  I began to move my hand up to block, and put it back down.  He struck me in the side of the face with his fist.
     “Satisfied?”
     “WHY WON’T YOU DIE!?!”
     I growled and snatched the man up by his throat.
     “Get it through your damn head!  You cannot kill me!”
     He kicked and squirmed, trying his hardest to get free.
     “I’ll tell you one more time!”
     He clawed at my arm, and swung out with his leg, striking me in the face.
     “I’ve had enough of you.”
     I clenched my fist.  I could feel his flesh crush beneath it.  His body went lifeless, and fell to the ground.

[Death Dark]

     My eyes snapped open.  I sat up as quick as I could, almost making the bed move as well.  I was in a hospital room.  I placed a hand on my chest.  There was a hole where my heart should be.  It really did happen.  Then…
     I looked beside my bed to find her sitting there.
     “You’re alright!”
     She giggled.  “You are, too.”
     “Oh, right.  I guess I am.”
     I laid back down.
     “How long has it been?”
     “Three days.”
     “I thought it’d be longer.”
     “The paramedics almost didn’t take you.  They saw the hole in your chest, and thought you were dead.  I insisted that you were still alive, and after a bit of me annoying them with it, they checked you anyways to amuse me.”
     “And?”
     “You have no pulse, but you’re still breathing.”
     I looked over at the machine that monitored my heartbeat, and saw the line was flat.
     “I see…”
     “The doctors are afraid to do anything about the hole in your chest.  They fear that if they do anything, you’ll suddenly snap back to reality and die on them.  Besides that, you’re fine.”
     “Thank you.”
     She smiled.  “Of course.”
     “How long have you been here?”
     “My parents forced me to go back home yesterday, but I snuck back over here today.  I couldn’t very well have you wake up alone.”
     The door opened, and a nurse peeked in.  As soon as she saw me awake, she slammed the door shut.  I could hear her hurrying off somewhere.
     “What was that all about?”
     “I guess she’s going to go get the doctor.”
     “Or an exorcist, by the looks of it.”  I looked at her as if what she said were ridiculous.  “What?  You got shot in the chest, and you’re alive.  Don’t act like there’s no reason for her to freak out.”
     The door opened, and a man I assumed to be my doctor came inside, with a crowd of people at the door watching.
     “You’re…awake,” he said.
     “I’m quite aware of that.”
     “How are you feeling?”
     When he mentioned that, I realized that I wasn’t in any pain, despite the fact that I had a hole in my chest.
     “I’m feeling…normal, as if it were just another day.”
     “May I see your chest?”
     “Sure.”
     He walked over and peeled the bandage away from where my heart should be, revealing a hole clean through to the other side.  It wasn’t bleeding and it wasn’t beating.  It was just there.
     “Well, the CAT scan shows that most of your heart was completely destroyed by the bullet.  Your heart’s no longer functioning, but the rest of your body seems to be doing alright anyhow.”
     “When can I go home?”
     “Well, we have no reason to keep you; your other vitals are clean, and you’ve remained stable up until now.  You can go home as soon as you’re ready.”
     “Thank you.”
     He nodded and left the room, shutting out the spies, though a nurse came in.  She began removing wires and tubes from me, getting me ready to leave.  As she did, I realized I was still in my pants, but my shirt was nowhere in sight.
     “Lauren, where’s my shirt?”
     “They cut it off so they could examine your hole.”
     “I liked that shirt.”
     “I saved it for you, but it has some blood on it, and the front is cut in half.  I was thinking about washing it for you and putting some buttons on it so that you can wear it again.”
     “That sounds good.”
     The nurse stepped away and she leaned in closer.  “Besides, I think it’d be pretty cool if you wore a shirt where people could see the hole in you.”
     “Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.”
     The nurse grabbed a few of the machines, and began rolling them out of the room.  I sat up on the edge of the bed.  Lauren turned to a chair to the side and pulled a shirt out of a bag.
     “I got you this yesterday.”
     She held it up, and it was a black shirt with a red reticule over the heart.  We both laughed.  I took it from her and put it on.  I felt around, and the center of the reticule was directly over the hole.
     “Perfect,” I said.  I stood up, and fell back down on the bed.  “Whoa.”
     Lauren giggled.  “Need some help?”
     “No, I’ve got it.”
     She rolled her eyes.  “Of course you do.”
     I stood up again, my legs a bit shaky.  I went to take a step and fell onto Lauren.
     “I’m glad to see you, too, but you could’ve been a bit gentler.”
     “Okay, so maybe I do need a bit of help.”
     She helped me get back onto the bed.
     “I’ll go get a wheelchair.”
     She quickly left the room.  I smiled as the door shut.  At least she’s safe.
     I flopped back down on the bed, feeling worn out already.  Dying sure takes it out of you.
     I could hear a commotion outside.  I sat up quickly, instantly on-edge.  I could hear her voice, and someone else’s.  It sounded like he wasn’t too happy, and she wasn’t very happy that he chose this time to get in the way.
     Before I even knew I was up, I had the door open, and I stumbled out into the hall.  Before me, with his back turned, stood a larger, older man, and beyond him was Lauren with my wheelchair.
     “He’s an abomination!  He has turned his back on God’s will and delved into some dark sorcery to rouse himself from the dead!  He is an enemy to any who live!”
     “Just, please, get out of the way!”  She noticed me behind him.  “Sam!”
     The man turned around quickly, seeing me leaning against a wall for support.
     “You!”
     With my arm that I hadn’t pinned to the wall, I lifted my hand up and wiggled my fingers around.  “Oooooh!  I’m a zooooombiiiiiie!  I’m a deeeemooooon!”
     The man took a step back, apparently terrified of me.
     “Look, can you just get out of the way so that I can go home?  I can barely walk; how am I a threat to anyone?”
     The man turned and pushed by Lauren to run off.  She rolled the wheelchair over to me.
     “You shouldn’t be up.”
     “I realized that after I made it out here.”  I flopped down into the wheelchair, and sighed.  “This is rough.”
     She rolled me around so that I could finish the paperwork I had to finish, and then we went downstairs to leave.  She wheeled me out of the sliding doors, and then stopped.
     “Pooh.  I’m going to have to go get the car; wait right here.”
     “I don’t plan on going much of anywhere.”
     She hurried off to get her car.  She had lost some of her energy from earlier.  When she left to get the wheelchair she almost skipped out of the room.  Now it just seemed like she were running from someone.
     I sighed, and suddenly felt my chair jerk.
     “What the—“
     I turned around to see the man behind me.
     “You again?”
     He began to push the wheelchair.
     “You’re an abomination.  You must be disposed of.  I will honor the Lord’s will and not suffer this witch to live.”
     I slammed the brakes on the wheels of the wheelchair, bringing it to a sudden halt.
     “The hell you are.”  I stumbled out of the chair, hoping I could maintain my balance long enough to not fall flat on my face.
     “You cannot run from the wrath of God!”
     Lauren suddenly came speeding through, and stopped hard beside me.
     “No, but I can run from you.”
     I opened up the door, and fell inside.  As soon as I pulled my feet up off the ground, I ordered, “Go.”
     She took off, and I slowly pulled myself in and shut the door.
     “I hope I regain my strength soon.”
     “Me, too.”
     “I really want to punch that guy square in the face.”
     “Me, too.”

[Death Dark]

     I felt him approach.  Finally, the bad news could come to an end.  The earth shook as he slowed to a walk, almost appearing out of nowhere off to my right.
     “How could you?  He was just a kid!”
     The hint of a relieved smile flew from my face.
     He pointed at me.  “I’ve been watching you for a while.  You’ve been getting more and more out of hand.  I’ve been too afraid to say anything about it up until now.  I’m going to make sure no one else gets hurt.”  He opened his arms wide and turned to the destruction around him.  “Just look at this!  It wasn’t enough that you had to disturb the delicate balance between us and the humans, but you had to kill the kid, too!”
     “He had gone out of control.  I had to kill him to make sure the situation didn’t get any worse.”
     “Oh, come now!  You were once like him!”
     “Those are my sins to bear.  Wait…”
     He grinned.  “Did you really think I believed that bull I just spewed?  No, no…but the others did.”
     My mouth formed into a snarl.  I could feel my hair begin to rise up.  The sands beneath my feet blew away with enough force to shred parts of the body at my feet, which blew off as well.  As I spoke, a sound like thunder echoed off the nearby mountains.
     “YOU BASTARD!”
     He was visibly shaken for a moment, not expecting this much of a flux in power.
     “So be it,” he resolved as he regained his composure.
     I barely felt the pulse as energy rushed into him.  The sand blew away a little for him, too, but he was reaching the limits of his power, and I hadn’t even begun to access mine.  He probably knew this would be a fight he couldn’t win, but I don’t think he was expecting what he found.
     He charged at me, taking a swing for my face.  I grabbed his arm, taking him by the chest.  I turned as I lifted him up, and slammed him to the ground.  This time I didn’t leave the cloud of sand.
     I felt him move, trying to run.  I punched the ground at my feet.  A violent explosion ripped its way through the sands, blowing everything around me away.  The other man flew off, tumbling through the sands like a rag doll cast away by its child.
     I could feel the sun’s energy reflecting off the glass at my feet.  Something about it made me feel so much more alive.
     The man stumbled up, and turned to me.  His chest was littered with wounds where sand ripped through his skin.  He roared, trying to force himself to feel the spirit of battle, but his fear was too far overwhelming.
     He charged at me again.  I moved first.  Before he knew I did, I was standing in front of him as he was in mid-step.  I brought my left hand down across his face, slamming him back into the sand again.
     He got up coughing and sputtering.
     “This isn’t over with,” he wheezed without turning to look at me.
     “It never started.”
     He turned over and kicked out at my legs.  I didn’t bother moving.  His foot hit with a sick crack.  He cried out in pain and rolled over, holding his foot.
     “What the hell are you?  You’re not one of us!  There’s no way it’s possible!”
     “You just don’t understand our potential.”  I picked him up by the throat.
     He grinned weakly.  “Go ahead, kill me.  It’ll only make them believe me more.”
     “Oh, I’d be happy to.”
     His eyes grew wide.  He wasn’t expecting that reaction.
     I punched him in the gut with my other hand.  The force wrenched him from my grasp.  I appeared below him as he flew through the air.  I grabbed him by the ankle, and threw him at the ground.  I appeared under him, fist raised in the air.  He landed on my hand, his back folding unnaturally over it.
     The body slid off my fist, falling lifelessly into the sand.  I brushed myself off.
     I heard the radio signal.  “Target sighted.”
     A gunshot went off.  I lined up my timing with the bullet.  It struck.  I fell.