[i]Tick...[/i] [center][i]Tick...[/i][/center] [right][i]Tick...[/i][/right] Jon's thumbs twiddled obscure patterns around themselves; his hands slick with sweat as he watched the round clock's hands travel slowly across its face. Time dragged on for an eternity when you weren't doing anything, even more so when you were waiting for something. On top of that, this something was so potentially exciting, and dangerous; Jon was filled with a mixture of adrenaline and fear, the combination of which almost make him nauseous. Though, he was lacking a good measure of fear. Worried, perhaps, but it had been a long time since Jon had felt real, heart clutching fear. During his training for the Winged Guardians, fear was something the instructors relentlessly tried to beat out of you. Along with mixed signals about shame and humility. Jon's mind wandered as he thought back to one of those particular moments, he had been young. Young, and afraid. Dark waves of fear thinly veiled beneath his demeanor of hope, for a better life. A life that would mean something. [I]...Anything..[/i] [i][color=powderblue]”Goddammit Jon! What are you waiting for! Crawl your worthless piece of shit! CRAWL!!”[/color] Drill instructor Havvit screamed, his face face and covered in a mixture of dirt and sweat. Seventeen year old Jon was frozen, on his belly, still a foot away from the barbed wire that he was supposed to be crawling under. Thin muddy channels ran beneath the wire, forming shallow trenches between the stakes holding the obstacle up. Though Jon saw none of that, he only heard the roar of gunfire. The instructor yelled at him again, but the words fell on deaf ears. Ears covered by Jon's hands as he whimpered pitifully. He was about to give up, to decide he couldn't do this, about to go home. A wrenching pain seared through his gut, doubling him over around the instructor's boot. [color=powderblue]”What?! YOU PATHETIC LITTLE TURD! YOU WANNA GO HOME? DO YOU!?”[/color] Havvit roared, as if reading Jon's mind. His screams over the gunfire were only met with pitiful sobs, emphasized by the tears coursing down Jon's face. [color=powderblue]”Listen here you little fuck,”[/color] Havvit began, crouching low next to Jon so he could be heard, [color=powderblue]”Do you think the forsaken are going to wait for you to get your shit together before filling you full of holes!? Do you think the hollows are going to hesitate before tearing your little brother and stringing him up by his entrails?! CAN YOU NOT PROTECT YOUR FAMILY? ARE YOU JUST SOME STANDARD, WAITING FOR THEIR NAMED TO BE SIGNED ON A DEATH REPORT? TELL YOU WHAT YOU LITTLE BITCH, I'LL HAVE YOU BROTHER MAN UP AND DIG YOUR GRAVE WHEN I CARRY WHAT'S LEFT OF YOU HOME! MAYBE HIS TEARS WILL SOFTEN THE GROUND SO IT WILL BE EASIER TO DIG, IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT YOU WHINY LITTLE SHIT?!”[/color] [color=cyan]”Sir! NO SIR!”[/color] Jon squeaked, uncoiling from his position and wiping his eyes. Havvit was right, Jon didn't want any of that. [color=powderblue]”WHAT DID YOU SAY? I THOUGHT I HEARD MY DAUGHTER FOR A SECOND.”[/color] [color=cyan]”SIR! NO! SIR!”[/color] Jon bellowed, diving headfirst into the mud, crawling furiously as live rounds ripped through the air above him.[/i] Jon smiled sadly to himself. Havvit was long dead, beheaded during a forsaken raid out in the sandy dunes of Forsaken territory. Jon had never had anybody give him that kind of real talk in his life, and he was thankful for it. Havvit hardened him, prepared him for the real world. When Jon came out on the top of his class, Havvit had laughed so hard he was brought to tears. They shared a drink afterwards, Havvit still chuckling to himself, amused. [color=powderblue]”Looks like my little whelping turned into a man after-all,”[/color] Havvit had said back then, toasting his drink to the night sky. Jon looked up from the gunmetal bench he was hunched over as the door opened, signaled only by a slight hum and the quiet rush of air. [color=greenyellow]”We're ready Jon,”[/color] Dr. Addison said, turning and leaving just as quickly as she had come. Jon knew where he was supposed to be going by now, Grayson had damn near given him the full tour. The thought of Grayson made him smile, he was so proud of his little brother. No matter what Jon did in his life, the advancements Grayson was making would affect the world for a very long time. Jon stood, stretching his stiff muscles. His heart was beating as if he had been sprinting. [color=cyan]”Perhaps I too, can change the world, huh bro?”[/color] Jon asked the empty locker room. It only took him a moment to shed his clothes and change out into a patient's gown. He was feeling kind of breezy in the back, but that much was to be expected. If something went wrong, and didn't kill him, the doctors would need quick access to his body and the gear he normally wore wouldn't allow for that. Still, without some form of firearm, or knife, or lethal object on his person, Jon felt kind of naked, regardless of the gown. Jon familiarized himself with the weight of [i]Arthur[/i], his tactical brass knuckles. He was about to set it in the locker when the door quietly hissed open again, and a familiar voice spoke. [color=orangered]”You should let me hold onto that for you, for luck,”[/color] Grayson said sheepishly, his young face brightened by his boyish smile. [color=cyan]”Sure little bro, for luck right?”[/color] Jon asked bemused, smiling as he passed the weapon to Grayson. [color=orangered]”Erm, right. I actually came here to wish you that... Good luck, I mean,”[/color] Grayson replied, stumbling over his words. It was very apparent that he was really worried. [color=cyan]”Hey bro, you remember that time in the foothills?”[/color] Jon asked rhetorically, recalling their favorite memory of their time together growing up. [color=orangered]”The foothills around Dresden? How could I forget such a thing!”[/color] Grayson beamed, [color=orangered]”I was stuck in a dead-end path, trapped by a wicked looking two-headed snake! And you just walked over, and picked it up like it was domesticated or something, and tossed it aside, cursing at it as it slithered away!”[/color] Grayson retold, chuckling towards the end of it. [color=cyan]”Remember that,”[/color] Jon started, placing a hand on Grayson's shoulder, [color=cyan]”I ain't afraid of nothin', it's everything else that's afraid of me. The boogeymen checks under his bed for me at night. Hell, the Reaper once came for me when I was shot once, I kicked his ass all the way out of the hospital wing!”[/color] Jon boasted, full of mock bravado. He knew just how to ease his brother's worries, but there was only so much he could do in a situation like this. Grayson replied with a fit of giggles, [color=orangered]”Yea? Ok, Hah!”[/color] Grayson remarked, wiping a mirthful tear from his eye. [color=cyan]”The point is little bro, I'm the manliest man around, and ain't nothin' gonna take me out of the fight before I'm good and ready, and that will never happen! I'm never gonna die! Not today! Not Tomorrow! I'm going to live a thousand lifetimes of whooping ass!”[/color] Jon struck a pose at the end of this, flexing his arms with a leg on the bench. Grayson giggled some more, before abruptly hugging his brother. [color=orangered]”You better...promise?”[/color] He asked in a quiet tone. [color=cyan]”I promise,”[/color] Jon said, his heart skipping a beat as he hugged his brother. [color=cyan]”Now c'mon you little twerp, stop getting emotional on me. There's work to be done! MANLY WORK!”[/color] Jon cheered, marching from the room melodramatically. Grayson watched him leave curiously, a bit perplexed. Apparently his brother had never learned that his manly bravado wasn't as quite effective as he hoped. Grayson smiled still, his brother was always being weird, at least in private or among friendly company. He had been pretty thankful that Jon hadn't embarrassed him like that in front of his bosses. He chuckled to himself as he left the locker room. [color=cyan]”C'mon you slow ass,”[/color] Jon teased, walking backwards as he motioned for Grayson to catch up. For the next few minutes they walked in silence, with the occasional word uttered here and there, or a playful nudge. The corridor looked just as pristine as when Jon had arrived a few hours ago, he wondered if this was an inherent ability of the material or if there were some very stealthy janitors. The floor was cool against the bottoms of his bare feet, much cooler than he could remember ever feeling. Hell, he barely remembered what ice was like. He could remember having it a few times in Dresden, but such commodity had been hard for him to come by as a Wing. Ice cubes weren't exactly a pressing concern when you were on patrol or filing paperwork. The floor actually made him shiver as he walked across it, causing him to be quite thankful when he entered the operating room. Not because the cold receded, in fact the room looked very much like the hallway other than the equipment in it, but rather because of the operating gurney. This room looked much like the observation room he had been looking at a few hours before. Seeing the same room, and having such vivid memories flashing through his mind made him realize exactly what it was he was about to do. The look of pain on that man's face as he burned alive, the sadistic smile from the rush of power. It made him slightly worried how such an experience would effect him mentally. In fact, he was suddenly starting to get the feeling that this was a bad idea. It was very likely he could die. The scientists had explained there tests, but that hand only been a handful of people. What if he was the one in ten that would die? What if he became a hollow? Extreme scenarios played out in his mind, and for the slightest of moments he hesitated. Halfway between the threshold of the room and running back the way he had come. For a single heartbeat, a fear he was unfamiliar with had stopped him in his tracks. A fear that he was trained to ignore, yet it's icy fingers slithered around his heart. [color=orangered]”C'mon you slow ass!”[/color] Grayson chided, playfully nudging his brother into the room. They chuckled together, Jon's worries washed away as he looked upon Grayson and remembered all of the things, all of the people he was trying to protect. [color=springgreen]”Got the jitters, Mr. Diederich?”[/color] Dr. Addison commented as she walked in behind him. [color=cyan]”Are you sure you're not like a medium or something? I swear all you scientists and doctor types know exactly when we're least expecting you,”[/color] Jon retorted. [color=greenyellow]”We have watches Jon, did you not get the memo?”[/color] Dr. Nevvo said plainly, following in behind Addison. [color=cyan]”Must of missed it. So we're all on time, now what?”[/color] Jon asked, walking into the middle of the room and sitting on the edge of the gurney. Dr. Addison and Dr. Nevvo separated to separate workstations on either end of the room, both of which were on wheels. [color=springgreen]”Now? We kill you,”[/color] Dr. Addison replied bluntly. Grayson's face went pale, and it seemed as if he breath had caught in his lungs. [color=greenyellow]”Please, Dr. Addison, no need to be so dramatic,”[/color] Dr. Nevvo said, irritation creeping into his voice. [color=springgreen]”We're going to tie you down, drug you, and fill the room with a gaseous compound that's going to turn you into a Popsicle. All with a homicidal creature we know next to nothing about in the room with you,”[/color] Addison quipped, seeming to ignore Dr. Nevvo. [color=cyan]”Oh well, if that's all..”[/color] Jon started, but the humor seemed lost to everybody else in the room. [color=orangered]”Jon..”[/color] Grayson started solemnly. [color=cyan]”I know, I know... I'll be fine, alright?”[/color] Jon said, trying to console his brother. Jon laid back on the table as Dr. Addison walked over, a needle held in her hand. [color=springgreen]”This is a sedative, it's going to-”[/color] [color=cyan]”I don't need the full brochure package, Doctor,”[/color] Jon said, cutting Dr. Addison off. She frowned at him, shooting him a steely glare as she pressed the needle to his arm. [color=orangered]”Good luck, I'll be up in the viewing port with the general,”[/color] Grayson said, looking slightly squeamish as he turned to exit the room. [color=greenyellow]”We're scientists Dr. Grayson, we don't believe in luck,”[/color] Dr. Nevvo corrected, sounding as mighty and pretentious as ever. Grayson nodded in response as he exited the room. Jon was about to open his mouth to reply, when a sudden wave of numbness hit him. He tried to lick his lips but he felt literally paralyzed. Dr. Addison laid him back, and began strapping ties around his body. [color=springgreen]”These are to ensure you don't go on a power trip when you wake up.. and well.. to keep you still if the numbness wears off.”[/color] Jon, even though he felt very compelled to, couldn't formulate a response, or even make a face, as she strapped him to the bed. He was stuck looking at the fluorescent light hunkered in its little glass dome attached to the ceiling. Dr. Nevvo leaned over into his vision, waving his hand and smiling at Jon as darkness descended across his vision. [color=indianred]”Ah, Mr. Grayson, here to enjoy the show?”[/color] General Paxton Bradley asked, chuckling heartily between puffs on the cigar he always seemed to have clasped between his portly fingers. [color=orangered]”I'm not sure about enjoying it..”[/color] Grayson replied meekly, standing at the window to watch Addison and Nevvo prepared his brother's sleeping body. [color=indianred]”You're brother is a lot smarter than he comes off young man, he's tough as rock too,”[/color] Paxton commented, through yet another cloud of swirling smoke. [color=orangered]”It's just.. is this really safe?”[/color] Grayson expressed, his worries eating away at him slowly. He was proud to be able to help his brother, even more so that Jon reciprocated that feeling, nothing made him feel warmer inside. Yet, they didn't know enough about these creatures, and this one in particular seemed a lot smarter than Nevvo gave it credit for. [color=indianred]”Proven and repeated results seem pretty solid to me lad,”[/color] Paxton said, setting his glass of whiskey down. Grayson grimaced, looking over at the General. A wise, and battle hardened man, of some size, but Grayson felt him detestable. Always smoking, always drinking, as if he had to fill the void in his life with those vices. And now, risking his brother's life for some idea that he could create an army of Immortals, the idea itself was the very definition of dangerous science. Not dangerous because of the risks, but because of what people would do with it. Grayson had a book on “The Manhattan Project” which had changed his outlook on science. Humankind was always going to abuse and use progress.. but.. he was just some lowly acolyte in a world of supposed masters. He could only help them destroy the world, again. [color=greenyellow]”Seal the room and let our friend out,”[/color] Dr. Nevvo commanded, striding into the room and breaking Grayson's thoughts. Grayson looked at him, as Nevvo took his station at the view port. Grayson truly detested this man, he was a pompous ass and a fool who made a mockery of what science really was. [color=springgreen]”Opening the vault now,”[/color] Addison stated, her fingers tapping away on the keyboard of the terminal. This room was an exact replica of the other one they had watched a man nearly burn alive in. Though, that one was being cleaned at the moment. Grayson watched as the most terrifying, and fascinating creature he'd ever seen was forced out of its hiding place. It screamed in protest, its cries shattering the stillness in the room. It had always been a curious thing to Grayson, the way its voice carried over the intercoms even when unplugged or unpowered. They had figured out that as long as there was a connection its voice would emit, it seemed to speak in a thousand radio frequencies. It flashed across the room, impossibly fast, its body becoming a blackened blur of what seemed like smoke as it transition from one spot to the other. It stopped in front of the window, it's faceless form seeming to stare at Dr. Nevvo. [color=greenyellow]”Hello beautiful..”[/color] Dr. Nevvo cooed, placing his hand on the glass almost lovingly, sickeningly. [color=springgreen]”I'm starting the process,”[/color] Dr. Addison said, though it didn't seem as if she was looking for confirmation from Nevvo. Grayson grimaced as he watched the scene, they were like twisted parents experimenting on their children–In the name of science. A part of him was glad neither of them actually had children, though he wondered what kind of twisted little monsters they would have grown up to be. A large, calloused hand placed itself on Grayson's shoulder, and he looked up into the grizzled face of Paxton. [color=indianred]”Your brother is about to change the world,”[/color] Paxton said a bit awestruck. Grayson didn't answer him, instead he continued looking out of the window as the room filled with an ethereal, teal gas. It settled across every surface, except for the preparation tables which had been wheeled after Jon was ready. The room began turning a shade of light blue as patches of ice began to form on the walls and floor. Jon's body immediately began to dim into a deathly, pale white. His lips rapidly turned into a bruised colored purple as the sheer cold worked its way into his body. A patch of ice formed on Jon's arm, but the spark didn't move. [color=orangered]”It's not working!”[/color] Grayson exclaimed in a panic. [color=greenyellow]”Patience young man, we haven't met the criteria for bonding yet,”[/color] Nevvo explained coldly, his attention never turning away from what was happening in the other room. The spark continued to stand still, it's wispy form hued in black unmoving, unflinching. Jon's body was rapidly deteriorating, becoming even paler with a hint of a blue tinge to his skin. [color=orangered]”You're going to kill him!”[/color] Grayson cried out, pounding his fist against the glass in horror as he watched his brother die. [color=greenyellow]”That's what we need! Your brother knew the risks!”[/color] Nevvo snapped, shooting an icy glare at Grayson. [color=springgreen]”He's flat-lining,”[/color] Dr. Addison commented, monitoring Jon from her terminal. Yet the spark didn't move. [color=indianred]”C'mon you bitch..”[/color] Paxton said through clenched teeth. [color=orangered]”Don't let him die..”[/color] Grayson pleaded, tears streaming down his cheeks as he fell to the floor. He looked up to find Dr. Nevvo staring at him open mouthed. The spark too, seemed to be turned towards Grayson, [color=orangered]”Please..”[/color] he begged pitifully. The spark let out a screech, its formless head thrown back as it assaulted the ears of those watching it. [color=springgreen]”Its disrupting the system!”[/color] Dr. Addison cried out, as the screen of her terminal erupted in a spray of electricity and shattered glass. She crumpled to the ground, her face peppered with the green tinted shards of the terminal screen, her face staring out in open horror. [color=orangered]”Oh my god!”[/color] Grayson cried out, falling back and scooting himself to the far wall of the room. [color=greenyellow]”You are.. so tremendous..”[/color] Dr. Nevvo said, watching as the Spark flashed over to the gurney, crouched above Jon. It looked one last time at Dr. Nevvo, before bonding with the chilled body of a dying man. The intercom in the room exploded in a display of fire and smoke, just as a piercing siren resounded throughout the complex. Paxton moved over to the door, trying to pry it open after it failed to do so automatically. [color=indianred]”It's jammed!”[/color] He exclaimed, the butt of his cigar falling from his mouth and hitting the ground in a shower of ash and sparks. An angry look came over Nevvo's face as the warning siren continued to blare, [color=greenyellow]”You.. bitch..”[/color] He said, betrayal evident in his voice as he pounded his fists against the glass. [color=greenyellow]”You're not going to destroy me! All of my work! All of my progress!”[/color] Nevvo cried out, barely audible as an explosion rocked the facility. [color=indianred]”Hey! Over here you mongrels!”[/color] Paxton yelled at the workers fleeing down the hallway. Grayson whimpered in complete shock and fear, his ears were still ringing and he was still huddled against the wall. [color=greenyellow]”You BITCH!”[/color] Dr. Nevvo screamed, a second explosion throwing him from the view port and sending him to the floor, where he came eye to eye with the still body of his dead assistant. [color=greenyellow]”It.. it was too smart for us.. this whole time.. it could have.. it just..”[/color] He blubbered, crawling towards her, his hand outstretched towards Addison's face. A third explosion hit the facility, causing part of the room's roof to collapse directly onto of Nevvo. Paxton, seeing the opportunity, wasted absolutely no time, [color=indianred]”C'mon Grayson! We're getting the hell out of here!”[/color] He declared, yanking the boy to his feet. Paxton half led, half hauled the sobbing boy up the rubble. [color=orangered]”But! My brother!”[/color] Grayson cried out, pulling against Paxton's hold on him. [color=indianred]”We can't help him now! Don't be a fool soldier!”[/color] Paxton roared, overpowering Grayson's resistance and dragging him up the broken concrete to the floor above. They scrambled up into the hallway as yet another explosion shook the compound, knocking them to the floor. [color=indianred]”Mother of God..”[/color] Paxton breathed, staring at a wall of fire quickly funneling down the corridor. [hr] By the seventh explosion, Jon was fully conscious once more. He groaned as he tried to roll off of the gurney. His entire body felt like it was frozen, and on fire at the same time, he felt sick and a plume of dust was raining down on his face, yet he was still strapped to the gurney. He blinked, trying to clear his vision, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears, or the splitting headache continually slamming against his skull. Something was evidently, terrible wrong. He struggled against his bindings, feeling suffocated and claustrophobic, but they wouldn't give way. He screamed with effort, feeling the tightness in his chest increase, feeling his lungs struggle to pull in oxygen. His body turned blue, icy blue, as a layer of frost permeated his skin. The straps across his body began to freeze, the thin layer of cloth shattering in its frozen state. Jon fell off the bed, gasping for breath as the ice on his skin subsided. [color=cyan]”It worked..”[/color] He whispered hoarsely, he could hardly believe it. It glanced upwards, towards the viewing window. The observation room had a plume of smoke escaping through a collapsed ceiling. [color=cyan]”Shit..”[/color] he said, nothing could ever be simple and easy. He gathered himself and got to his feet, looking for a way out. He was still sealed in the room, but he could feel the tingle beneath his skin, the tingle of the phenomena the spark must have given him. He stretched his hands towards the door dramatically, trying to focus on the tingle beneath his skin. But nothing happened. Jon looked down at his hands, which from the wrist onward were a bright pink. It suddenly occurred to him that he couldn't feel his hands, yet he still had muscle control over them. He had trouble grasping the foreign concept of being unable to feel his hands, which caused him to exhale in frustration. A frosty cloud exited his lung, dotted with tiny sparkles of frost. He raised an eyebrow curiously, exhaling a bit stronger than he had last time. Another plume roiled from his lungs, tiny ice crystals suspended in the air. He filled his lungs to their limit, and blew out a breath as hard as he could. The cloud of frost washed over the door of the room, audibly freezing it. Jon smiled to himself and kicked the door as hard as he could, shattering it into large, frozen chunks. [color=cyan]”I just froze and broke a steel door.. holy..”[/color] He started, but that thought escaped his mind as he looked into the flaming corridor before him. There was a definite bump in his plans, seeing as he couldn't feel his hands, but at least he wasn't useless. He took another breath, letting a plume of frost drift down the hallway from his lungs, the sheer coldness of his phenomena leaving an icy trail down the hallway. He tread across the surface carefully, but found that his feet acted like impromptu magnets. He walked across the thin layer of ice, his feet crackling as the soles of his feet stuck to the ice, without slipping. Though there was a moment when he lost concentration due to a door erupting off its hinges and followed by a plume of fire, but other than that he made it down the iced over floor without much trouble. He found himself back at the locker room, and only partially damaged. A water main had burst, but one good lungful of oxygen froze the stream solid. Jon felt it better to change now, while he had the chance, than run around half naked. It was very difficult for him to work his hands, without being able to feel them he was constantly losing his grip on something or dropping it. It didn't help anything that something, somewhere in the facility had blown up again and sent another adrenaline spiking shock wave through the complex, causing Jon to lose his grip on his pants once more. He cursed under his breath, this was taking far longer than he would have liked. Sometime later he found his way to the upper level. He had found out along the way that he could do the same trick with his boots if he focused–sticking to the ice from the fire he had to put out. As he descended higher, signs of civilization returned to him in the form of pained wails and panicked screams. He looked around frantically, trying to help where he could, but found most sections had suffered far more damage than those below. [color=navajowhite]”I can feel them! I ca-”[/color] A voice cried out, ending off in a strangled cry of pain. Jon sprinted towards the voice, a few doors down the hallway he was in an inside what seemed to be, well Jon didn't exactly know. Every room was kind of the same to him, full of test tubes and computers. This particular room held the mangled, bleeding body of a scientist trying to say something, but only succeeding in uttering pained gurgles. Multiple slashes coated his twitching body, and his eyes were rolling back into his head. [color=cyan]”What happened!?”[/color] Jon asked, feeling stupid for doing so. It was obvious the man couldn't speak, yet Jon knelt next to him anyways, trying to offer some form of comfort. The scientist's eyes went wide, as he pointed up towards the ceiling. Jon looked up only to see the busted hatch of a ventilation shaft. [color=cyan]”I don't know what you're pointing at,”[/color] Jon said, desperately wanting to help the man. It was then that he heard the skittering sounds of something in the vents above them. He looked up once more, eyeing the opening suspiciously. A small creature burst from it, hissing viciously as it impacted Jon's chest. Jon moved his hands to fend the creature off, only succeeding in the thing biting his hands multiple times. He flayed his hands around desperately, unable to use them effectively as the creature tore into them, though his hands didn't bleed. He took a breath and exhaled, freezing the creature slowly as the icy cloud covered its body. It flipped over onto its back, its legs curling in towards its torso. Jon rolled the thing off of him, getting to his feet as the frozen creature shattered against the floor. He looked at his hands, covered in what seemed to be like bullet sized holes, though he felt nothing, and there was no blood. Hell, with his luck the thing was probably venomous too, but he felt nothing, which kind of made him lose all hope of ever regaining feeling in his hands again. He knelt down near the broken pieces of the creature that had attacked him, struggling to pick up the pieces. He dropped one, and it shattered into even smaller pieces, provoking an angered string of curses from his mouth as he fumbled a second piece. He almost had the third piece, but the scientist issued a loud gurgle of pain, causing Jon to drop that piece too, and let loose another string of profanities. He stood, defeated, and looked at the scientist, who was currently spasming. Jon was halfway to him when the guy's chest exploded, releasing what must have been thousands of tiny little insects, and not just any insect to Jon's great displeasure. Spiders. He blasted them with a wave of frost, but there were too many for him to effectively stop all at once. He dashed for the exit, reaching back to close the door and frowning in anger as his fingers fumbled the handle. He cursed again, leaving the door and heading further into the compound. He could hear them all around him now, the skittering legs of the little black spiders, or the big black spiders. He wasn't sure which, he hadn't seen anymore... yet. He felt his breath come in ragged gasps once more as the walls loomed all around him, seeming to press in close. Panic built up inside him, causing him to fall to his knees. He held his head cradled in his arms, breathing in rapid, short breaths of air. As he rocked back and forth on his knees, the walls seemed to slowly recede to their previous positions and size, no longer threatening to close in around him. He gathered himself and stood, looking around nervously, as if the walls were baiting him into a trap. [color=cyan]”I need to get the fuck out of here,”[/color] He said, to nothing but the sounds of the skittering spiders in the vents. He made his way further down the hallway, or was he heading up now? He wasn't sure, he only knew there was forward. A few minutes later and her came to a stairwell, which he knew from memory lead up to the ground floor, where there was a nice large exit for him to go through and be free of this place. He took the steps two at a time, rushing up the flights up stairs, eager to free himself of this prison. He smashed through the ground floor door with his shoulder, its newly frozen hinges giving away easily under Jon's weight. The ground floor was absolute pandemonium. Squadrons armed with guns stood backed up against one wall, their muzzles flashing without pause as hundreds of the larger spiders advanced towards them. Some, no a group, of the little beasts took notice of Jon, and he turned and left without another word. He sprinted down to the floor below, hoping to find another exit as he dashed down the hallway. This wind of the complex seemed rather intact, other than the gore streaked across the floors and the what Jon assumed were fresh layers of web spun throughout the corridor. He continued on, only pausing when a sign caught his eye–“Armory”. Now that sounded good to him. Even better than the thought of somehow manipulating a gun, Jon eyed the cart Grayson had used to show off his new, fancy equipment. The thought of Grayson filled his heart with sadness, but if he had any hope of ever finding him again he had to press on. Jon walked up to the cage the gear was locked behind, freezing it with an angry exhale and shattering it with a solid kick. He used the same tactic to break open the cases, only now feeling the use of his power straining his heart. He gasped, struggling against the pain as his heart beat furiously in his chest. It took a few moments, but eventually he recovered. He looked out at the gear spread out before him, the weapons, the ammunition, and the suit. [color=cyan]”You are gorgeous..”[/color] He said, looking at the wraith armor, only know what it was because of the clear label put on it. It took him some time, long enough that the explosions stopped and he no longer heard gunfire, but he managed to suit up fully. He found that he had much better control of the armored gloves, feeling through the frost coating the inside of the glove, rather than his hands themselves. It was still weird, and exceptionally awkward to put into practice, but it was manageable. By the time he made it outside, the orange hue of evening was stretching across the horizon. He had found a blown side of the building, exiting just up the slope of the mountain. There had been a rather large fire, but that was quickly, and carefully dealt with. Jon didn't want to over exert himself again. He stood on top of a rather flat boulder, his gun resting in his unfeeling hands, yet he could feel the weight of it pulling against his arms, and in an offhanded way, Jon could feel himself holding the gun. If he maintained focus, he could do the same bodily freezing trick, but with just his hands, and he could feel them through the ice, somehow. Everything was an enormous mystery to him at the moment. Especially what had happened to the science facility, lying in a state of flaming ruin below him. Even more so than that, the biggest question of all was what he was going to do now. Not with his new life, or powers, or even the search for his brother. He felt his sense of duty flare up inside him as he stared out over the roiling wave of creatures, exiting from the shattered maw of the building. Thousands of them plowing across the desert, heading west, towards Russel City. At the rate they were... skittering, they would be upon the residents of Russel in a matter of hours. Jon wasn't sure if anybody was aware of what was happening, or if anybody was prepared for such a thing. Jon had never even heard of such a thing happening before.. this horde of bloodthirsty creatures. [hr] Somewhere within Russel City, beneath the pouring rain under the cover of a Winged Guardian's outpost, a radio crackled to life. The bored, on duty sentry yawned, taking hold of the device in his hand and pressing the button. [color=green]”This is Sky Watch One, who is this?”[/color] The Wing said lazily, watching the rain clean the boots he currently had propped up on the wall of the tower. [color=orangered]”Sky Watch, This is Papa Bear,”[/color] The Guardian sat up suddenly, focusing on the radio transmission, [color=orangered]”Divert all assets towards the Eastern Perimeter.. I want.. everybody,”[/color] The voice demanded. The Guardian set the radio down, feeling partly in shock as he raised his binoculars. He didn't see anything but a roiling cloud of dust heading towards the city. It could have been a dust storm.. unless it was a large mass of.. [color=green]”Holy... shit...”[/color] [center][b]Current Time: 4:35 P.M.[/b][/center]