User:Gemini-Pawn/Ulterior Motive Part 5
As soon as Mister Shadow pulls his arm out I feel my legs crumple underneath me. I fall to the ground and clutch the gaping hole in my chest. The pain is indescribable, I want so badly to pass out. But I have to hang on. Come on. You need to stay conscious, don't go into shock. Black ooze seeps out between my fingers and it's not Shadow's.
Normally I don't transform when I copy abilities. When I touch someone like Mister Shadow, I just get stretchy. But this is more than skin contact, and it makes me into a more faithful copy of the original. The metamorphasis hurts like nothing else. The geiger counter on the table slowly goes silent as my body turns dark and loses its shape. I can't even speak in this half-melted state. I can only watch in silent agony.
Hazmat guy groans as he recovers from meeting the wall I introduced him to. Shadow leaves me in a literal pile on the floor and turns to face him. “It is an. Honor. Hm. To finally meet you face to. Face. Doctor. Your rep- utation as a recluse is well earned.” Shadow takes a strained breath. “Our meeting was. Difficult. To arrange.”
“What are you talking about? It was I who summoned you. And you were instructed not to enter after you delivered the woman to me. However, I will overlook this infraction on our deal because you seem to have saved my specimen. Erk!” Shadow's arm stretches out coils around the hazmat guy, dragging him closer. “What is this!? Unhand me or you will never see a cent of your payment!”
“Dear doctor. Ifff you knew me half as well as Miss Strauss...You would know that my business is never so. Hm. Simple.” It's just as I feared. Shadow really does still have my memories. And now this “doctor” knows my identity too!
But not for long. “Miss Strauss? Who-?” His sentence is cut short as dozens of spikes sprout all over the ooze wrapped around his suit. “Glk...Hck...” Shadow, he...He killed him. I can't let him get away with this. I've got to get control of this situation! With my body still in the middle of its transformation, it won't be easy to move. But I've got to do something!
It takes a lot of focus to stay solid as I slowly reform my legs underneath me. My warped shape makes me sound like I'm speaking underwater. “You killed him, Shadow. Now I really can't let you go, even if you do have my memories. No amount of blackmail will keep me from stopping a murderer.” Even I know how much of a hollow threat I am right now. But I might stand a chance if I can keep him talking long enough for me to pull myself together.
“In our current states. Neither. Of us can truly harm the other. Hm...Besides. My business here is. Con- cluded.” He pulls a long roll of cloth out of his body and unwraps it to reveal an orange-bladed sword...Oh no. M'Aara...
“What have you done with her!?”
“We engaged in some. Innntense negotiations.” He hefts the sword in his hand. “I apologize for not. Liberating you sooner. But I was most eager to. Aquire. This blade. It has interesting prop- erties.”
“All of this...Was so you could get ahold of her sword?” M'Aara said the sword was part of her plan to capture Mister Shadow. Maybe I can use it to my advantage? I just hope it works because right now I'm out of ideas.
“The sword. Was an unexpected. Hm. Bonus.” He tosses hazmat guy's impaled body aside. “I havvve been following the doctor's progress for some. Time...His work with nuclear physics was. Alarming. To say the least. And he proved to be impossible to fffind. Even with my ex- tensive resources.”
I'm still a little wobbly, but at least I'm standing. I've got to get that sword, it might be my only chance to stop Shadow. “Givvven time, I have no doubt the doctor would have eventually suc- ceeded in replicating those atomic powers. So. I sabotaged his suppliers. Intercepted ship- ments. Drove him to frustration...Once he was at his limit, I. Preyed. Upon his impatience, and drew him out of hiding by lea- king information about a possible shortcut for his research...Namely. You.”
I slowly lurch forward to try and close the distance between us. “But why assassinate a mad scientist? What could you possibly gain from that?”
“Miss Strauss...Still seeing the world in black. And. White.” He idly inspects the crossguard of M'Aara's sword.. “Because I am a crim- inal, I clearly could not have saved my city. My. Hhhome. Without an ulterior motive?”
“You were just doing the right thing? I don't buy it. You passed up a fortune. That's so unlike you...Unless...You were paid more by a competitor.”
Mister Shadow's lipless mouth curls into the faintest of smiles. I'd have a chill going down my spine if I still had one. “An interesting. Hm. Theory.” That's right, keep smiling you slimeball. As soon as I'm in arms-reach I lash out and try to grab the sword. But Shadow could see my malformed arms coming a mile away and holds the blade over his head where I can't reach it.
Gotcha. I quickly seize M'Aara's sword with my telekinesis and bright it straight down into his neck, beheading Shadow in a single slice. His headless form emits an angry growl. Suddenly his body morphs its entire upper torso into a giant tentacle that flies straight at me.
I call M'Aara's sword to my hand and hold it in front of myself. But just before reaching me, the tentacle splits into hundreds of smaller tendrils that stretch around the blade toward me. “Oh no you don't!” A blast of telekinesis sends the writhing mass flying. It makes a very undiginified splat on the wall.
Have to keep Shadow off balance. Can't give him time to recover. After sliding down the wall, the ooze is already starting to reform his body. With a telekinetic boost into the air, I lunge at him blade-first. “No!” Before he can get up, I drive the sword into his chest. “Yeeeaghk!” Almost instantly his body seems to lose its ability to stay solid, as if the sword was somehow pinning him to the ground. All that remains is an inert puddle of black tar around the blade.
“That was for M'Aara, you creep.” She was right after all. This sword really can stop Mister Shadow...That makes three I owe her...I just hope she's still alive.