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Suddenly Memories: FinalFant4sy
By Dac
FinalFant4sy walked calmly into Data’s office, leering at Jessica as he passed her by. She gave him a withering look and a hand motion as though brushing him off. He smirked as he moved into the core of the office through the partition and sat on the chair in front of Data’s desk. Data himself was reclining in his chair, watching Final idly.
“She really hates you, you know that?” he said conversationally.
“Is that a problem, boss?” grinned Final.
“Not really,” said Data. “She’s always held grudges against some of the Guardsmen. She never liked DarthJ3sus, Dac or Celtic. She loved Marksman though, thought he was sexy.”
“Must have been the accent.”
“Probably.”
Final spread his arms in the most casual pose he could muster. “So, what’d you call me up for?”
Data sat forward and tossed Final the file he’d been leafing through. Final gathered it up and flipped idly through it. There seemed to be a lot of pages missing; the file itself was remarkably thin. Final looked up inquiringly.
“That’s an island off the eastern coast of New Zealand,” Data said. “It’s a strict no-fly zone, although they’re too distracted helping the Australians to really enforce that. Basically they like to pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Final nodded, staring at the images of what seemed to be a lab. “What are they doing there?”
“Nothing,” said Data. “Nothing they’ll admit to, anyway. They’re incredibly secretive about the whole thing. I have information, though, that they’re trying to create superhumans.”
Final blinked, and his expression sharpened like a hawk closing in for a kill. He sat forward, his eyes cold and predatory. “Superhumans.”
“That’s right,” said Data. “As if there aren’t enough of those in this world already, present company and colleagues notwithstanding. All the information I have says, they’re still in the early phases, but the information doesn’t go very far. It could be outdated. It’s all in there for you to read. You’re going down there in an hour to shut them down.”
“By myself?” asked Final, slightly aback. “None of the others? Didn’t Dac used to do this stuff all the time?”
“Dac’s busy, for now,” said Data. “And the others...well, if this squad really is designed to counter the Guardsmen, they’ll be prepared for everyone else. The other Guardsmen have been publicly in my employ for months. The only Guardsmen the greater public is not aware of are you and SuperGenius, and I need him here. You are a wild card. Unexpected, unknown and better prepared for this sort of thing than you give yourself credit for. Believe me, I would not send you alone into a situation like this if I did not have every confidence that you could pull it off. Go in, get rid of them, and get out again. It’s a simple job.”
Final thought hard, resting his chin on his fist. He examined the file again, trying to get what he could out of it. It was ridiculously lacking, but then, he had been taught to make the most of what he had, especially if he didn’t have much. He looked up again at Data, who was watching him with keen interest.
“An hour, was it?” he said finally.
“Break a leg,” grinned Data.
***
Final jerked awake as someone shook him, groaned and swatted at the hands.
“Fuck off, I’m up,” he grumbled.
“We’re approaching your drop,” said the gruff voice. “You ready for this?”
“About as ready as I’ll ever be,” he said groggily, pulling on his parachute.
The roar of the helicopter’s blades became a lot less monotonous when the officer pulled the side door open. Cold air flooded the cabin and Final recoiled, shivering. The officer turned tom him.
“You have all your equipment?” shouted the officer. Final patted his pack and gave the thumbs up. “OK, now remember: you have 36 hours before we circle this same area searching for you. You can radio in for evac before then with your gear, but if you don’t, and you’re not here in 36 hours, we assume you’re dead and leave you behind.”
“Got it,” called Final over the drone of the helicopter.
“This is the far side of the island,” continued the officer. “Here’s our knock-up map, and here’s your copy. This is where we are now, and over here is where you’re headed. We estimate the travel on foot should take-”
“I get it, I get it,” said Final. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
“OK. Good luck!”
“Thanks.”
Final stood at the edge of the compartment and breathed deep. He turned back to the officer.
“Just so I’m clear,” he yelled. “What time is it now?”
“Local time is 0600,” came the reply. “Remember: 1800 tomorrow. You’re not here, we leave.”
Final gave the thumbs up again, then looked down into the darkness. Clamping his eyes shut, he held his breath and leapt out into the open air.
The wind spun around him as he tumbled through the open air. The sound of the helicopter faded away above him, and he ripped at his cord. His parachute opened and he drifted silently to the ground below. There was no moon in the sky and the stars were stubbornly hiding behind the clouds, so as he dropped he saw nothing but inky blackness surrounding him. Eventually his feet met dirt and he pulled himself free of the parachute. Stuffing it back into his pack, he looked around, waiting for his night vision to adjust. He groaned as he walked around. The cold had hit him like a ton of bricks as he had jumped, and he was still feeling it. It got cold in this stupid hemisphere. He staggered over to what seemed to be a crater and curled up in it, pulling out his parachute and wrapping it around himself. He rocked back and forth a bit, trying to warm himself up. Even as he did, he felt his eyelids begin to droop. He had been travelling for hours and was exhausted. Before long he was asleep, lying on his side in the pit as the clouds began to dissipate.
***
He lay there for some time when the sun began to rise, and its rays shot through the morning sky and illuminated his face. He groaned again and rolled over.
He paused. He could hear something. A soft, regular pattern of thuds, almost like tremors. He looked at a small puddle of water near his head in the crater. With each thud, the water rippled.
They were getting louder.
“What the hell?” he mumbled, poking his head out of the crater, when abruptly something huge landed on the ground in front of it. “HOLY SHIT!”
He darted backwards instinctively, wide awake and shocked. The shock gave way to fear when he looked up.
Standing above him, looking around for the source of the yell, was what seemed to be a giant lizard. Standing at easily 30 feet tall and with scales the colour of rust, its head was blunt and squarelike, pitted with jagged, ugly scars. Along its back ran irregular, uneven spines that looked almost like misshapen spikes, all of them a dusty grey colour. The huge brick of a head swung around and stared at him in the crater. Final froze with terror and scrambled backwards to the wall of the crater. The monster stepped down and stalked towards him in a single pace. Lowering itself onto its immense forearms, it stared closely at him, its head alone taller than him. The nostrils flared as it studied him, its burnt orange eyes gleaming. It stared at him unflinchingly, and he stared right back, his eyes wide with terror, trying to comprehend the reality of what seemed to be a mutant dinosaur staring him in the face.
The lizard opened its mouth and roared. Its rancid breath hit Final like a brick to the face, and exhaustion forgotten, he launched himself out of the crater and sprinted away across the dirt. He heard the footsteps of the immense beast behind him and within an instant it was on top of him. It swung one of its long forearms and swatted him, and he was tossed into the air like a rag doll. Screaming, he landed heavily and rolled twice. The monster followed him, giving off another roar. As Final looked up blearily and blinked, he struggled to get to his feet when he heard an answering cry. This one was higher pitched and raspier than the deep, throaty roar of the lizard, but it was just as loud. The lizard stopped short, turned to look at its right, and as Final watched, baffled, another beast waddled over the hill.
This one had a skin coloured black and gleaming with a glossy sheen. Final stared, curious in spite of himself, at the newcomer as it scuttled down the embankment towards them. It looked like an amphibian, but unlike any Final had ever seen, its size notwithstanding. Its body was long and almost cylindrical, and it had six legs on either side, almost like a mutant salamander. Its head was thrust forward and shaped like half a dinnerplate: long, flat and semicircular, with protuberances on either side of its neck. Within its mouth were hundreds of teeth that, had it been the size of a normal amphibian, would have been like needles, but at that size, they may as well have been pikes.
The lizard roared a challenge, and the amphibian answered. The two huge beasts bellowed at each other and, even as Final lay forgotten by the lizard, they charged. Colliding with such force that the ground shook, the pair fell to the ground and rolled towards Final, who yelped and scrambled out of the way, back up the embankment the amphibian had appeared over. The two monsters passed by him, oblivious, and continued their colossal battle. Final crawled frantically away, wiping sweat off his brow, as he approached the top of the incline.
“Did I just drop onto the set of the newest Godzilla movie?” he wondered aloud. “What the fuck is going on? Where are the superhumans?”
He made it over the top of the embankment and left the two beasts to their business of slaughtering each other. If nothing else that answered the question of where the lizard got its scars, but Final just brushed himself off, feeling relieved that it had only clipped his pack rather than knocking his head from his shoulders or breaking his bones. He hid under a nearby overhanging rock and rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear his head of the events of the past half hour. Something was definitely wrong with Data’s intelligence if it hadn’t even mentioned these creatures, and that seemed like an incredibly poor oversight. This island could be crossed on foot from one side to the other within two hours, he recalled, so any intel failing to mention two colossal monsters that lived here was doing it wrong.
“Oh, make that three,” he whispered in wry awe.
Final looked out in front of him, and realised he could see the entire southern tip of the island, including the tiny lagoon he had noticed on the map, barely a couple of kilometres from his drop zone, which was undoubtedly where the amphibian had come from, and the sea beyond it, separated by a rocky outcropping that went all the way to the sea floor.
As he watched, he spotted another huge beast out among the waves. Looking through his pocket binoculars, Final stared as it was headed for the shore, and as it pulled itself up onto the sand dunes, he had to rub his eyes in astonishment. It looked like a blue whale with two hind legs, walking like a biped onto the beach. Instead of two fins it had four, held out in front like pulpy forearms, and huge webbed feet suspending its weight. Its tail flicked back and forth in the water as it kneeled down and began rubbing its head in the sand. It was a mark of how immense it really was, Final thought, that it could be several kilometres away and he could still make it out without the binoculars. Whatever it was doing in the sand, he couldn’t begin to guess. After about ten minutes, it appeared satisfied and stood up, turning back to the water. It walked back down in a loping gait, unhindered by the waves lapping at its knees, and with a mighty dive it vanished beneath the water. Final lowered his binoculars and stared. For several minutes he sat silently, trying to make sense of his situation.
“There goes the option of swimming out of here,” he muttered.
Growing tired of sitting and waiting, he stood up and carefully checked the surrounding area as he began to move. He still had a job to do. Edging out from underneath the outcropping, he kept an eye out for any signs of movement and began crawling up the hillside, slowing down as he reached the peak. He heard a ragged panting sound and froze for a moment before ducking behind a tree. As he waited, the huge amphibian appeared over the peak and began scuttling past him. It seemed to have a large, fresh slash down its side and favoured those legs as it moved, walking in an erratic pattern. Final waited for it to pass. As it walked, it halted briefly, and seemed to sniff the air. Final watched, ready to run in case it smelled him out, but the creature seemed occupied by something else. It gave a low growl, much lower than its earlier roar, and scuttled away. Final couldn’t work out if it was his imagination, but it seemed to move with more urgency than before. Could the lizard still be alive? Was it coming back? Final edged over the ridge hesitantly.
He spotted the lizard retreating among the rocks to the east. It seemed to be wounded as well, with a fresh chunk missing from its flank, hobbling away. Final breathed a sigh of relief, and then continued down the embankment, keeping an eye out in case either creature returned.
An odd sound met his ears, like canvas whipping in the wind, and a shadow fell across him. He rolled over and let out a scream of fresh terror as something huge descended upon him. He felt something close around him and suddenly he was lifted from the ground, held by the torso by something with a tighter grip than a vice. Attempting to break free, he realised he was held by enormous talons on a leathery foot. He looked up.
Clutching him was an enormous bat with a body the size of a car and an immense wingspan. It swung its head down to look at him and he gaped in horror. Its face was the stuff of nightmares, with soulless black eyes the size of hub caps encompassing half its head and a mouth full of long, thin teeth covering the rest. It let out an inhuman squawk, the very sound of which hurt his ears. Panicking, he struggled and managed to get one arm free, but the monster tightened its grip on him. The wind was driven out of his lungs and he gasped in pain as it gave another squawk, flapping towards the tallest peak on the island.
An idea shot into his head. Struggling to bend his leg beneath him, he reached frantically with his free arm for his ankle. He cried out with exertion as he rocked this way and that in the beast’s clutches, but he managed to seize his ankle and pull out the knife he had strapped to his shin.
“Knew this was a good idea,” he growled through gritted teeth. “Fuck you too, Spartan.”
He drove the knife with as much force as he could muster into the creature’s foot. Ripping it out, he continued stabbing as much as he could, aiming for joints and muscles, anywhere that might class as a weak spot. On the fourth stab the creature let out a howl of pain and its foot opened up. Final tumbled through the air and struck the hillside roughly, gasping in pain as he rolled down the hill. He came to a stop among a scattering of rocks and crawled inside them, hiding beneath them as the bat wheeled and circled in the air above. It gave another howl of pain and several honks, before the sound of its wings receded and it returned to its nest. Final lay exhausted underneath his rock, panting.
***
He stayed there for a long time, struggling to form a coherent thought as the traumatising events of the past couple of hours played out through his heads. All the while, the sounds of the island met his ears, and he silently listened to them. The distant howls of pain and rage from the bat. Roars from the lizard. More sounds, snarls and screeches and squeals from creatures that Final couldn’t even begin to visualise. There had to be at least half a dozen monsters on this island, maybe more. He mentally ran them off on a list in his head: bat, lizard, whale, amphibian...more. There were more.
He lay there for hours, trying to understand this vicious place, so very unlike what he thought he was getting into. Eventually his muscles began to cramp, but he did not move. He had to wait. Wait until...
Evacuation. The helicopter. Final’s mind suddenly kicked into overdrive. He could radio for a pick-up, but the bat would surely attack it if it came close. Except he had been dropped off without incident...so maybe the bat was diurnal, as silly as that seemed. Final thought hard. Maybe he could call for evacuation and make it back to the drop point in time...
He opened the pack and groaned with dismay. Whether it had been the lizard’s attack or his fall from the bat’s clutches, much of the equipment in his pack was broken. All that remained was a flare gun, a water canteen, matches, his map, some packs of dried fruit and several lengths of rope. Final’s attention was drawn to the radio handset and satellite phone, both in pieces. Groaning with exasperation, he tossed aside their wrecked remains, along with his torch, spare battery packs, compass and anything else no longer functioning. Tearing open a packet of dried apples, he bit down on one and chewed it, thinking. He was here for another day or so, give or take a few hours, on an island besieged by multiple monsters. Most of them he should be able to avoid until the helicopter arrived, but the bat posed too much of a problem. He had to get rid of it.
There was only one thing for it. He had to find the lab, acquire some powers from it, and take the monsters down that way.
“Yeah, sure,” he said sarcastically. “I can do that.”
He waited for several more hours, chewing on more dried apples and taking sparing sips from his canteen until the sun began to go down. He waited tensely until dusk began to set in, and then eased himself out of his hiding place. As the darkness deepened he scurried across the dirt, hiding behind whatever cover he could, heading for the northern area marked on his map. He travelled slowly, tensing at every slight sound, but he ran across no resistance. The monsters all appeared to have vanished to their various lairs to slumber until dawn.
After several hours of slow travel, he crested another ridge and into the dip where, if his map was accurate, the lab should be. The area was almost like a small valley, one end opening onto the sea, with the inclines sharply rising on either side. Steep, but not nearly so steep that Final couldn’t crawl down them. The valley was maybe a kilometre wide at the bottom, and the dirt here was an ashen grey. Final looked around, searching for some sign of the lab. He couldn’t spot anything. Shuffling about in the darkness, he searched the valley for an hour, but there seemed to be no sign of the lab. Eventually Final realised there didn’t seem to be any sign of human life at all, much less the lab he had seen an image of in the file. He swung his head around in frustration and realisation flooded into him.
There was no lab. The whole thing was a wild goose chase.
He kicked a nearby stone with all the force he could and let out a yell of frustration. He heard an answering snarl somewhere not far off and jumped in shock. Sprinting to hide under a nearby rock that rose about waist-high off the ground, he wrapped himself in his parachute again, breathing heavily. When no other sounds were forthcoming he began to calm down and kick himself for not thinking. Finally he could bear it no more, and allowed exhaustion to take him and he drifted off to sleep.
***
He awoke with a start, still curled up under his parachute under the low-hanging rock. The sun was up, but not by much, it seemed, as the valley was still heavily cast in shadow. Groaning, Final pulled the parachute off himself and stumbled out onto the valley floor. He sat on his rock and looked around, checking to confirm his suspicions from the night. He had been right; there was no sign of any lab or other human interference. This island was truly wild, populated by a bunch of monsters straight out of a Lovecraft bedtime story. Final hung his head and sighed, trying to think of a way to get rid of the bat at least so the helicopter could get in and out without interference.
He heard a snort and looked to his right. There seemed to be a rough cave cut into the valley wall not far away. As he watched, another creature emerged from it. Unlike the rest, this one seemed to be a mammal. It was the size of a elephant, but seemed to more closely resemble a hairless ox. Its head was similar in shape, squat and blunt, with two horns rising up above its eyes. A third horn similar to a rhino’s jutted upwards from its nose, almost like a Triceratops. It stepped evenly forward onto the valley floor on feet like a rhino’s, grunting and tossing. Final stared at it blankly.
Its head swung towards him. He groaned wearily. “OK, this is just getting ridiculous.”
The ox let out a bellow like an angry bull and began to charge at him, lowering its head to aim its horns. Final stood up on his rock and lowered his own head in anger. All fear of these animals burnt out like a match, and he felt nothing but contempt. The creature thundered closer.
“I have had ENOUGH of this!” roared Final, and just as the monster was about to slam into him, he leapt to the side. The ox crashed into his rock, splintering it and grunting in surprise. Final let out a cruel laugh. “You were going to do that whether you got me or not,” he sneered. “Well now it’s my fucking turn!”
He barely knew what he was doing. Overcome with recklessness and fuelled with black rage, he ran up beside the creature as it shook its head wearily and kicked its forelimb with the sole of his foot right at the knee, as though stamping on a spider on the wall. There was a sickening crack as the leg snapped like a toothpick and the monster fell to the ground, bellowing with fresh pain. Final blinked, wondering what just happened. He examined his leg, stretching it out. He felt strange. Like a child who didn’t realise he was hurt until he saw the blood, Final felt stronger. Far stronger, almost inhumanly so. That could only mean one thing. He had leeched a superhuman’s power.
He spun on the spot, searching for the superhuman. Was the lab here after all? Was it hidden somewhere? Final scanned the surrounding area for some sign of humanity, but there was nothing. No lab, no scientists, no superhumans. So where had his burst of strength come from?
He racked his brains, trying to think of an answer. As he did, he heard the ox give a wounded grunt as it attempted to stand up, and all of a sudden the penny dropped. He hadn’t leeched his strength from a person at all.
The ox looked at him with injured anger, but it seemed to freeze as it saw his face. Something in it recognised the change in him. Final’s insides writhed with anticipation and eagerness as realisation flooded all through his body, and his expression became predatory. He balled his fists and lunged at the creature, acting purely on instinct as he drove his fist straight through its skull with a single blow. As he did, he felt the strength leave him as the creature expired on the spot. Its immense body crashed to the ground and Final retracted his fist, barely aware of the blood coating it. He stared at the elephantine corpse, breathing heavily, all frustration forgotten. His eyes were wide with cold, cruel excitement.
“That was good,” he whispered. “That strength...”
He looked to the top of the valley wall. If he could draw power from one creature, then it stood to reason he could draw it from all of them.
With newfound manic energy he ran to the top of the incline, searching around for some sign of one of the monsters, any one of them. He looked around. How many were there? There couldn’t be many...there were at least four more he knew off, and likely to be more. He heard waves crashing on the beach nearby, and his mind went straight to the whale. He quickly set off, running towards the beach and heading around the island. The whale had exited the water to do something in the sand yesterday. If he was lucky, it would do it again.
***
He pushed himself for an hour, shutting out the burning pain in his lungs as he ran. He didn’t look around and take in his surroundings, thinking only of the legged whale. He finally came to the spot where he had the previous day seen it burying its head in the sand. He looked around, expecting it to emerge from the waves like Godzilla, but the water was calm. Final kicked at the sand like a child told he couldn’t have an ice cream, and frustration returned to him, but for a different recent. He looked around the beach, hoping one of the other creatures might return, but he couldn’t spot anything. He sat down on the sand, feeling irritated.
Not far away, a breeze seemed to kick up and the sand began to lift and blow across the beach. Final watched it idly, wondering where to go from here, when an odd clicking sound met his ears, followed by shuffling.
Something was moving nearby.
Looking around, Final saw a patch of sand that seemed to rise up from the ground in a roughly circular formation. Several cylinders seemed to lift up on either side of it as something emerged from the sand. Final realised abruptly what the whale had been doing the previous day when it was burying its head in the sand. It had been looking for something, and evidently hadn’t found it. As the new creature emerged, Final, giddy at the prospect of leeching some inhuman strength, rolled his eyes sarcastically.
“Oh, of course,” he sneered. “There’s always a fucking giant crab, isn’t there?”
The crab shook the sand off its body and moved without hesitation towards Final. Rather than scuttle on one side, it ran straight at him like a huge spider, with an odd tail like a scorpion’s, except barely long enough to touch the ground, hanging behind it. Its pincers shot forward with surprising speed, and Final dived to one side, rolling in the sand and sprinting around the side. Picking up a small rock, he hurled it with all his newly-leeched strength at his opponent, but it simply glanced off the crab’s hard shell and ricocheted into the dunes. He blinked as it came towards him again and ran. It didn’t seem to have given him any increases in speed, but he had other ideas.
Doubling back, he surprised it by running towards it. It reared back and he seized one of its pincers, planted his feet and ripped with all his might. The pincer broke off, spraying him with blue blood as the creature gave a screech of pain. It spun in a wild circle and struck him, sending him flying. He lost his grip on the pincer as he tumbled across the sand, and it came at him with renewed vigour. Picking himself up, he lunged for the pincer he had pulled off. He seized it and all but threw himself up a tall rock standing nearby. As the creature furiously came towards him, he tightened his grip on the pincer, and just as the crab reached him he leapt towards it. It reared back, just as he had hoped it would, and he thrust the pincer forward, straight into the creature’s red eye.
The creature screeched in pain. Final clamped his hands over his ears, vainly trying to shield himself from the sound of it, but it forced its way in and stabbed at his brain like a flaming knife. Staggering from the sound of it, he climbed the rock again, breaking off a piece of it as he went. The creature, preoccupied with its own pincer sticking out of its eye, didn’t notice him as he took another leap. This time it did not rear up, and as Final landed on its back, he pounded at the shell again and again with his rock. The crab tried to throw him off but he somehow managed to keep his balance, and kept pounding away with his rock until it was reduced to grit. Tossing its remnants away, he gave the shell one last punch, and heard the shell crack. Stuffing his fingertips into the break, he ripped backwards and a large chunk of shell broke off in his hands. He drove his arm past the elbow into the exposed skin underneath, and the crab gave one last screech before scurrying around at frightening speed. Final clung on for dear life as the crab wore itself down, until eventually it slowed and halted, and was still. Final grabbed hold of whatever organ he was nearest to and ripped it out. The crab did not make a sound.
His strength left him as the creature died, and Final sighed with relief. Some rational corner of his mind told him he shouldn’t be enjoying this, but that part was quickly squashed by the rest of his mind, rejoicing with ecstasy. He was toppling beasts that would otherwise be unstoppable! He was on top of the world!
He was being watched by the whale.
Final stared as the beast lumbered out of the water towards him. He ran to one side while the gargantuan head lowered and opened its maw, coming towards the crab’s body. Final felt strength flooding through him once again. He raised his eyes and grinned. The whale ignored him, closing its mouth on the crab and sucking it in.
Without thinking, Final ran forward and seized the pincer, still protruding from the crab’s eye. He ripped it out and darted away, but the whale continued to ignore him. It was easily the largest of the monsters, Final could see that. Standing at about 40, maybe 45 feet tall, it would have towered over even the lizard. For all that, it barely seemed to notice Final. He smiled and went in for the kill.
Running behind it he stabbed at its ankle with the crab pincer. It let out a deep wail of surprise and turned slowly to see what was happening. Final stabbed again and again, desperately hoping somewhere in its legs it had something similar to an Achilles’ tendon. He continued stabbing when the tail whipped around behind him and knocked him off his feet. The wind driven out of him, he looked up as the head lowered towards him. He rolled sideways as it dropped into the sand and began to shake back and forth, as though it had hoped to crush him.
‘Come to think of it, it probably did,’ he thought.
Springing to his feet, he jumped onto the head and began pounding on it, hoping his luck hadn’t changed. It hadn’t. Each blow was thunderous, far stronger than any he had delivered before. He could feel the skull cracking under his fists, and the beast’s laborious pace increased considerably. It swung its head, trying to dislodge him, but driven by manic energy he continued mercilessly pounding away, refusing to budge. The whale bellowed with pain, but Final threw back his head and laughed, exhilaration flooding through his body. He gave one more mighty punch, and his fist sank straight through the creature’s head and into its brain.
The whale fell forward with an impact that must have shaken the whole island. Final was thrown bodily from his perch, flying for a hundred feet before landing in an awkward heap. He groaned as he struggled to stand, feeling the leviathan strength draining out of his body as the whale died a painful death.
Final staggered up the incline above the beach, not even looking back over his victory. Conscious thought had left him, and he was driven only by a dire need to wipe out whatever was left on this island. He was the alpha predator now, and there was prey to hunt. Pulling himself over the rise, he staggered across the rocky ground. His mind was a whirring mess, and only the same words formed themselves coherently: Find. Fight. Kill.
***
How long he staggered, he couldn’t tell. Time no longer existed in his head. The same three words just rattled around in his skull, and they were the only activity in there.
Find.
Fight.
Kill.
It could not have been long before he heard a familiar roar, and propelled himself towards it without a thought.
The lizard was clambering over the rocks ahead of him, heading in the opposite direction. Final lacked the capacity to wonder what it was following. He ran up behind it, driven by primal need, and now he knew what to look for, he could feel its strength filling him. Taking a flying leap, he landed on the rocks beside it.
“Hey T-Rex!” he roared.
The lizard halted and turned towards him. Without even waiting for it, Final dashed over and punched its knee. The joint buckled and the monster dropped, but stood back up again quicker than Final could anticipate, moving its foot backwards and slashing at Final with its colossal forearm. One of the talons raked at his chest and he let out a cry of pain. It was a glancing cut, but deep enough to leave a bloody streak on his body. In fury, he leapt onto the arm and swung up with agility that surprised him, landing on the beast’s back. With a bestial cry, he plunged his hands into the creature’s back and grabbed at its spine. It gave a roar of sudden rage and whipped about on the spot, trying to dislodge him, but Final’s grip held firm. Bellowing, he pulled upwards with all his might. The spine didn’t fracture at all; instead Final’s feet punctured through the heavy scales and sank into the flesh. He blinked in confusion and pulled them out. He kept his grip on the spine, but more to stay in place on the rampaging monster’s back rather than do any damage. Sizing up the situation, and struggling to hold on, he threw himself forward. By chance he managed to grab hold of one of the knobby ridges on the monster’s skull and dangled right in front of its eyes. Its head shot around in pain and fury, its gaping maw snapping at his feet. Final planted them on the upper jaw, drew his hand back and punched the beast right in the eye. His fist sank right through.
With a howl of agony, it began thrashing in earnest, making its earlier rampage look like a sleeping kitten. It tossed its head this way and that. It bellowed three times as loud as before. It stomped the ground in utter fury and its tail whipped around, taking out several rocks. Final was thrown clear and slammed into a tall rock. Dazed, he looked up just to see the monster pounce at him. He rolled out of the way just in time and the lizard crashed into it. It flailed on the ground, and Final leapt on top of it, going straight for the head. An image of the whale and what he’d done to it flashed into his mind, and he sank his fist as hard as he could into its skull. Cracking straight through, he felt shards of bone stabbing into the creature’s brain. Its flails increased violently, then stilled, and the beast slowly rolled onto its side and lay there.
Final removed his arm and spat. He did not look at the creature, did not savour the victory for a moment. There were still creatures out there. He turned and moved away from the rocks, staggering across the landscape.
He didn’t have long to move. The commotion must have been heard all across the island, and the smell of blood was wafting on the air. Even as he walked, he saw movement in front of him as the amphibian appeared over the rise. He grinned evilly as it crawled towards him. There was something hesitant in its gait, some caution. It did not recognise Final, but it could smell the lizard’s blood on him. Final halted and smiled, daring the creature to come forward. For a long while it paused, staring at him curiously.
He knelt and picked up a rock. Hurling with all his might, he threw it at the beast. By some divine luck, it bounced off the creature’s sensitive snout. It let out a hiss and scurried towards him.
“I am not ever getting tired of this,” he smirked.
The amphibian lunged and he darted sideways, taunting it. It rushed at him, swiped with its forelimbs, bit and spat. Its tongue lashed the air, but each time he dodged, ducked or rolled away at the last minute. He let out a derisive laugh.
“You’re not even a challenge any more!” he cried, seizing another small stone in his hand. He threw it again, and it lodged in the slimy nostril. With a snort, it blew the stone out and began stalking in a wary circle. Final matched its movements, both of them walking like two street fighting opponents, each sizing the other up. The creature was angry. Clumsy. Final knew he couldn’t get a grip on it like he had the others; its skin was too slimy. Even stepping on its footprints nearly sent him sprawling. As yet, though, that was the only advantage it had. Final could feel its strength, knew he was equal it. He was smaller. More agile. Smarter. It was fast, but he could nimbly spring away from any attack it made.
He stooped to pick up another rock. The creature recognised the motion.
With a snarl, it leapt into the air at him. Surprised, he shot under it, but it whipped its tail down and lashed him. He fell to the ground and the beast landed solidly five feet away. It spun around and its needle-like teeth flew for his face. Thinking quickly, he threw the rock as hard as he could, lodging it in the back of the creature’s throat. It pulled up, kecking and hacking as the stone ripped through its innards. Final sprang away while it thrashed and spun, hacking the whole while. Eventually it raised its head, but halted.
Final stood before it, holding a boulder above his head.
“Choke on this,” he hissed, and hurled it like the others.
The creature’s head was pulped beneath the boulder. There was a cracking, squelching sound, and the amphibian’s limbs flailed limply for a moment before going still. Its tail twitched every so often.
As before, Final did not pause to crow over his kill. He turned his eyes skyward, searching for the last of his conquests. The one which had damaged him and not yet paid for it. He scanned the sky, but could find no sign of the giant bat.
No matter. He knew where it was hiding.
***
There were several peaks on the island, but only one that could accurately be called a mountain. Near the top, on the southern edge, was a rocky crag, loaded with the ripped up branches of close to every dead tree on the island in a rough nest. There was a dark cawing inside the nest, as well as that same flapping noise.
A hand appeared over the edge as Spartan dragged himself into the nest.
The bat was scrabbling around, looking for something. The floor of the nest was littered with bones. There were a few colossal ones, but mostly they looked like the remains of smaller indigenous animals. It occurred to Final that he hadn’t seen any in his time on the island.
The bat was scratching and digging underneath the bones of former prey, both giant and normal. Final watched it calmly for a moment, stretching out one hand. He could feel it, now that he knew what to look for. The inhuman strength of monsters. He could feel it pulsating through every fibre of his being, like never before. He remembered how the lizard and the amphibian had retreated the day before. At first he had thought it was because they were wounded. Looking around at the giant bones, he realised why. Everything on this island, except possibly the whale, had feared the bat. The bat ruled the skies, where the other creatures could not go. The bat was the lord of the island.
‘Until now,’ thought Final. A grin spilled onto his face. His eyes narrowed. He stood up and walked towards the creature.
A degraded femur, possibly human, cracked under his weight.
The bat’s head spun around and stared at him. Involuntarily, he recoiled. The huge, inky black eyes bored into him and he felt an instinctive wave of panic.
The other creatures had not been like this. Monstrous as they were, there was something awe-inspiring about them. They were things that could make cool action figures. They were powerful, strong, and rather awesome.
On the other hand, this bat redefined ‘grotesque’.
Its salivating jaws opened in a hiss, drenching the floor of the nest. Final took a step back. Slowly, the bat turned around fully and reared up on its hind legs. It held the pose for only a moment before dropping back onto its wings and letting out a squawk or challenge. Final stepped back again, barely able to control himself. Mentally he kicked himself. The whale had been bigger than this. Maybe the lizard as well. The crab almost as ugly. What was it about the bat that induced fear in the other monsters and him?
Final bit his lip. The bat stalked forward a bit more. Final raised the flare gun and shot it full in the face.
Rearing back in rage, the bat beat its wings furiously. Final ran forward and dived at its furry chest, his strength fuelling him. The fear left him. Instinct took over. The bat fell backwards, landing on the remains of past victims, and flipped over. It beat its wings and darted to the edge of the nest. Final took a flying leap and landed on its back just as it launched itself into the air. Looping his arms around its neck, he held on for dear life as the enraged bat flapped around the island. He ignored the wind that threatened to rip him off its back and send him to his death. The bat spun in the air, pulling off acrobatics he never would have thought it capable of. Still he held on. Its deafening shrieks made his ears bleed and his brain felt like it had been set aflame, but he ignored it. He clutched its neck as it wheeled and dived around the island, his iron grip never slacking.
Fight back.
The thought slammed into his head as the beast screamed again. He had to fight back. Hanging on up here wouldn’t kill it. He had to do something.
He swung his legs until he was straddling its shoulder. Timing himself for the downbeat of its wings, he released its neck and latched onto the wing. The weight displacement dragged it down to one side. The serpentine head snapped at him and he hastily scrambled towards its claw-like fingers. As long as it was in flight it couldn’t reach its mouth, but Final wasn’t interested in keeping it in flight. He saw the ground rushing towards them and felt his grip loosening as the beast furiously beat its wing, trying to dislodge him. He couldn’t hold on much longer.
He punched it in the wing membrane and ripped a small hole in the skin. Grabbing the edge he ripped it further open. The beast howled and with one final mighty beat sent him flying through the air. He crashed in the dirt, raising a cloud several metres high and lay there, gasping. Several bones were broken, but he had no idea which. He raised his eyes and watched the bat spiralling downwards, trying to right itself but unable to. It slammed into some rocks and gave several piercing, wounded cries.
Final could almost taste the blood. Fighting down the overwhelming pain lacing his body, he forced himself upright. He was too far from the bat to leech strength. He inched closer. Closer. Closer.
He came in close enough proximity to it and felt the strength holding him up. The pain dulled, but he could still feel it, like a dull knife across the broken edges of his bones. The bat feebly snapped at him, but Final could see a sharp rock protruding from its chest. The wound was fatal, he had no doubt of that.
He blinked. He couldn’t let that happen. No wound would kill it. He had to deliver a finishing blow. Had to. Had to.
He threw his parachute over the beast’s head. It thrashed as much as it could, trying to get rid of it but only getting tangled in the lines. Unseen, Final darted past it to its neck. Taking out his rope, he looped it around the beast’s neck and tied a noose. Seizing the other end, he planted both his feet and tightened it with all his might.
The rope snapped and Final fell backwards. The beast gasped at the reprieve. With a yell, Final fell on it, wrapping his arms around its neck in a bear hug and tightening. His face was screwed up with pain and anger as he maniacally crushed the huge neck. The bat gave a wheezing cry of pain. There was a sharp crack, and then silence.
Final released it slowly. He studied the creature’s body, prodding it and poking it to make sure it was dead.
It did not move.
He raised his hands to the sky in triumph and let out a wild yell of laughter.
The bat was dead. The island was his.
Sinking to his knees, Final breathed in his victory, his pain returning to him. He had beaten them all. Nothing could stop him.
How long he kneeled there, he didn’t know. Minutes or hours, he couldn’t say. The world did not exist to him. There was only the sound of the wind, the rocks and dirt, and the giant mammalian corpse in front of him. This was his world. The predator’s world.
A sound snapped him out of his reverie. The distant throb of a helicopter.
Everything hit him like a thunderbolt, and he scrambled up the rocks, the bat all but forgotten.
***
The door opened and Final hobbled into Data’s office, smiling a cold, unpleasant smile, his head lowered, his face still streaked with grime and blood, his shirt still torn and caked with blood. He was bandaged in several places and his left leg was at an awkward angle. Data wrinkled his nose and looked up in surprise. He took in every inch of Final’s filthy, war torn appearance before putting down the book he was going through and folding his arms.
“You must be eager to tell me what happened,” Data commented. “I wish I could say this is the first time a Guardsman has given me a report before showering, but that’d be a lie.”
“You knew there was no lab on that island, didn’t you?” asked Final, his voice trembling with anticipation. “You knew all along.”
“Yeah,” said Data, going back to his book. Final waited expectantly for him to continue. He didn’t.
“So why the pretence?” asked Final. “Why give me some bullshit about a lab in New Zealand if you were sending me to fight monsters?”
“This also isn’t the first time I’ve given a Guardsman false information before sending him on a mission,” said Data calmly, not looking up. “It was an experiment, and like all experiments the subject has to go in blind.”
Final’s temper flared. “Blind?” he snapped. “I nearly got killed a dozen times by rhino-bulls, giant lizards and crabs out of pulp horror flicks. There was this thing in the sky I did not recognise. At first I thought it could just be a giant eagle, but no, it was a bat that looked like it had broken out of HP Lovecraft’s petting zoo and drank 50 tons of steroids. Just like everything else on that fucking island. This thing fed on nightmares and shat out hellfire.”
“I’m tempted to make a bat out of hell joke.”
“Don’t you fucking dare. Not now. Tell me straight up: am I just a lab rat here?”
Data sighed and lay the book down on his desk, giving Final a placid stare. “We all are, my boy. Even me. I’m just trying to find our ways out of the maze. Sometimes I need to manipulate my people to help them out.”
“How?” growled Final. “How did that help me out?”
Data smiled. “A few ways. You killed all the monsters without aid, correct?”
Final set his jaw and nodded stiffly.
“Then that means we have learned more about your power. You absorb unnatural traits from those around you. This little test proves that is not limited to humans. You absorbed abilities that should not have existed from creatures that shouldn’t have had them. That opens the scope of what you’re capable of, Final. Now, how about physical attributes? The creatures would have had them. Did you manifest any?”
Final remained silent and shook his head, just as stiffly as before.
“There we are. We know what you don’t absorb.” Data spread his hands and gave a broad smile. “We have learned more about you, what you can do, and we can use that knowledge to better serve us. Plus, at the same time, you disposed of some creatures that could potentially have been used against us.”
Final broke his silence with a snort. “Oh please,” he said. “You didn’t see what I saw. Those things were wild, untamed, and extremely hard to kill even with their own strength. It’d take far more power to control them than any of us have.”
“Anything that can be killed can be controlled,” said Data.
“Whatever,” said Final dismissively. “I still don’t get why you wouldn’t even give me a hint. You sent me to New Zealand completely unaware?”
“Final, before you got here and joined the team, about 75% of what we did we had to go into unaware,” said Data flatly. “So many of those fights with old heroes, we were in over our heads. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing. We won anyway, because we learned to adapt. That’s what survival is. Anyone can survive something they’re prepared for, but it takes something else entirely to survive something you’re completely unprepared for. By the way, the island wasn’t near New Zealand. I told you that to throw you further off the scent. It was in the sea of Japan.”
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”
“That was what I said, too,” said Data, sounding mildly exasperated. “That’s just where they were.”
Final sighed and shook his head. He ran his hand through his matted hair and got it caught. Data rolled his eyes and shook his head a little before leaning forward.
“Give me a full report later,” he said. “For now, go and shower, and get something to eat, for Christ’s sake. You look starved. Then go get your wounds treated, I’m not letting you leech Mr Invincible for this. You’re getting patched up the old-fashioned way.”
Final nodded slowly, stood up and walked towards the door. Just as he placed his hand on the knob, he paused. He looked back at Data, back in his book.
“Hey, Data?”
Data looked up. “Hm?”
“Where did they come from?” asked Final. “They can’t have been naturally occurring species. I absorbed their strength, they were all on an island with no source of food to sustain them all, there was only one of each of them...where did they come from?”
Data’s eyes moved independently. He thought hard for a moment before shrugging to Final. “I have no idea,” he said. “I only have a few reports, and they all say the same thing: strange monsters on an island just south of Japan. A few months old, at least, but as to how long they’ve been there or how they got there, I don’t know. Left over from the dinosaur age? Results of nuclear fallout? Science experiments gone awry? Some dipshit trying to recreate Godzilla got it horribly right? Who the hell knows?”
Final stared at him. Data shrugged.
“Don’t give me that look,” said Data. “I don’t have all the answers.”
“Whatever you say,” said Final. “If you find out, tell me.”
“OK,” said Data. “But don’t hold your breath.”
Final closed the door behind him and scratched at the dried blood on his arm.
11/12/2011 4:36:56 AM
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