Radioactive: Chapter Fifteen

Radioactive

Chapter Fifteen

~Be Careful what you Wish for~

A tattered woman walked through the labs underground. She wore old torn clothing and was overall a dirty mess. People stepped out of her way to avoid getting any filth on them. Others covered their noses because of her stench as she walked by. She walked into a room and spotted the doctor, black goggles and all. The woman walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

The doctor turned around startled, “Oh, what a hideous creature—I mean, hello lovely lady have you come to—”

“Doctor, it’s me! Jumper!” the woman pointed to herself.

“Oh, it’s you,” the doctor relaxed, “You couldn’t have taken a much cleanlier form?”

“I didn’t have time,” Jumper said, “I have to talk to you.”

“If you must,” the doctor muttered as he walked around the room.

“I think we may have a problem,” Jumper followed him around.

“How so?” the doctor started to look interested.

“I saw these people yesterday, well actually it was a boy and a dog, but I still didn’t get a good feeling out of them,” Jumper started seeing the holes in his own theory.

“So boys walking their dogs scare you, now,” the doctor looked at him, “That is a good thing to know.”

Jumper sighed, “No, you weren’t there, there was something weird about the two!”

“Jumper, you’re just being paranoid again,” the doctor said, “Remember the mailman incident? It’s a mailman’s job to deliver the mail. They aren’t spying on you. We don’t want a repeat.”

Jumper crossed his arms, “Okay, can I borrow one of the mutants.”

“Absolutely not,” the doctor said, “My beautiful creatures will not leave the premises.”

“How about the ones that escaped?” Jumper asked.

The doctor looked saddened, “That was an accident. Unfortunately, the security precautions failed and they managed to escape. It wasn’t on purpose however.”

“Fine,” Jumper muttered.

“Now go get out of that filthy skin. You are stinking up the whole place,” the doctor shooed him away.

Jumper left the room and walked to his own room. He jumped into his own skin. Jumper was still unconvinced that who he met that day was more than just a boy walking his dog. Frankly, he didn’t like the way the dog was sniffing at him. He needed to convince the doctor that these new comers were something to worry about and not just some people passing through. The choice was obvious; he needed to take things into his own hands.

He walked barefoot through the hallways of the facility. No one questioned where he was headed. He was the doctor’s favorite and they weren’t going to get in his way for fear that they might anger the doctor. Jumper stood in front of an elevator and typed in a code for the keypad. He used a code that one of the maintenance workers used. Sure that worker would be in a heap of trouble but what did he care.

The door opened and he walked in. The elevator took him down to the cooler lower levels. He got off and walked down a long hallway. On either side were bulletproof windows. On the other side of the windows, were separate cells. In the cells were several creatures. Some of them rammed up against the widow growling and snarling at Jumper. Each creature was assigned a number and that number was placed on a plaque at the base of the widow.

Jumper walked to one of the windows and stopped a moment. A female mutant sat cross-legged in the center of the cell. She had blue skin and black hair; a tail snaked its way around her in a neat circle as she sat. Jumper vanished and appeared inside the cell. The girl’s black eyes opened. She screeched quietly at him, bearing sharp teeth but other than that, she didn’t move.

“Hello, Samantha,” Jumper smiled, “You remember me don’t you?”

She growled. Jumper sat down across from her.

“I mean, sure, this isn’t the form we met in but I’m sure that little detail doesn’t matter anymore with your mutations now,” Jumper talked to her. He smiled at her, “How are your new powers doing?”

The creature glared at Jumper. She bared her teeth in a brief grow.

Jumper reached out and clasped her hand, “Come on, don’t be like that. I got you what you wanted, right? In fact, you should be technically thanking me. But I won’t have you go that far. Instead, I need you to do a little favor for me.”

In a flash, both he and the creature disappeared.

~§~

“That sounds interesting,” Kaiba said as he typed at the computer, “Does that description sound familiar to you, Kiri?”

“Scanning thought Tower records,” Kiri reported, “Found a match. From the description Fang has given us the best match that I can confirm is a Body Jumper. The user sabotages another’s mind and controls their body killing the hosts mind in the proses. Each Body Jumper has an original body but must leave their body in order to control another.” Kiri looked at Fang, “This might be the cause of your observations with the boy having two scents.”

“One was the body he was controlling and the other was his own original scent,” Fang nodded.

“I will add that observation to the records,” Kiri stated.

“So why are we interested in this kid anyway,” Riu stated, “Just seems like a kid jumping bodies if you ask me.”

“He kills people when he jumps into other peoples bodies,” Duke said.

“Yeah, so,” Riu shrugged, “it’s not any out our business.”

“Still, it could explain why people have been going missing quietly,” Kaiba said, “Our Body Jumper takes a form that his next victim will feel comfortable will, maybe even taking the form of a friend or family member, then he’ll lead them to where ever the experiments happen.”

“Makes sense,” Jekyll noted, “He doesn’t seem like the kind to actually do the experiments.  He seems like the supplier, supplying enough test subjects for the doctor to do his work.”

“So our new goal is to find this jumper,” Kaiba said, “Great, let’s get to work.”

A heavy object crashed into the building. Brick and mortar caved in on all of them. They were thrown to the ground. Kaiba covered his head as debris fell. He felt the floor underneath give way and fall through. When things settled down a little Kaiba sat up. He coughed as the dust settled.

The side of the apartment had a huge hole in it. On the roof of the neighboring apartment was a mutant. It’s levitated in the air as it screamed at the team below. It raised its arms in the air, lifting two vehicles in the air and throwing them at the damaged apartment.

“Move!” Kaiba called out.

Everyone got to their feet. Kaiba ran toward the gap in the wall. He jumped down and was followed by the others just before the two cars crashed into the building. Kaiba landed on his feet. The creature screeched at the survivors.

Jekyll landed closest to him, “Finally, a little excitement happens. How are we going to deal with this one?”

Kaiba got to his feet, “She can’t attack all of us at the same. We’ll split up and surround her at all sides.”

“Roger!” Ing reached up and grabbed the apartment roof ledge.

“Where do you think you’re going!?” Kaiba yelled at the android.

“What? Sorry! I can’t hear you over my being awesomeness!” Ing pulled himself up onto the roof.

He jumped up and grabbed onto the creatures leg. The creature screamed and flew off leaving a blue light trail behind her making it easy to track her. Kaiba sighed and clenched his fists.

“Come on!” he called, “We have to take that thing down before it causes anymore damage!”

“The mutant or the kid?” Fang smiled.

“Both,” Kaiba stated. He looked at Kiri, “Come with me.”

“Right,” Kiri nodded.

“Then let’s move!” Fang turned into a wolf and ran down the alley.

He was followed by Kaiba and the others. The trail to follow the mutant was easy even as the blue light in the sky started to fade. Riu and Duke climbed onto the roof and traveled by roof top. The creature tried to kick the little android off her leg. When she saw the others coming, she screamed and lifted a rooftop water tower and threw it at Riu and Duke.

“Read it and weep, babe!” she pulled out two daggers that looked similar in make to the blades braided in her hair. She threw a dagger at the creature fused with electricity. Lightning crashed down on the creature as it screamed. Stunned the creature fell to the ground.

Ing grabbed on to the roof ledge and held on as the creature fell below. Duke grabbed onto his arm and pulled him onto the roof. The creature fell on the ground. Fang lunged at the creature but she stretched out her hand and used her powers to throw him across the street. He hit a wall and was momentarily stunned. With the creature distracted, Jekyll threw knives at the creature striking pressure points but not killing her. The creature screamed in pain. Kiri ran forward only to be picked up and pushed back. The creature reached out a hand at Kaiba and screeched. Her screech was cut short when a broadsword fell from the sky and cut her in her chest.

Kaiba looked up and saw Duke on the roof. Riu waved hello as she stood over his shoulder. Ing called down to the others, making a lot of noise. Kaiba sighed and rolled his eyes.

Jekyll sighed, “Why can you keep these creatures alive long enough for me to examine them?”