Radioactive: Chapter Nineteen

Radioactive

Chapter Nineteen

~Open Window~

Sorry for the extended delay, work got really crazy the last few days. -.-,

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Riu asked. She ended up coming along, not wanting to be left behind, “I mean they could just be hidin’ from us. How do you know they are headed for their home? They can’t be that stupid to—oh gross!—lead us there. I mean they would have to be pretty stupid. And by pretty stupid, I mean really, really stupid. Eww! This freakin’ sucks! There just isn’t a rank on a scale that could measure how stupid they would have to be. So overall, they couldn’t possibly be that stupid.”

“They also aren’t that stupid to not be able to hear you all the way down this tunnel,” Kaiba muttered.

Riu looked up ahead of her, “You are so paying for a new pair of shoes.”

“Just agree,” Fang sighed, “The sooner you do, the sooner she will shut up.”

Riu looked over her shoulder, “What did you say!? Just wait till I get over there!”

“Yes,” Fang stated mindlessly.

“Are you just saying that!?” Riu asked, “Because I will beat you up!”

“Yes,” Fang nodded.

“You’re getting on my nerves!” Riu shouted.

Fang shrugged, “Yes.”

“Arggh,” Riu faced forward and proceeded to ignore Fang.

Fang looked over his shoulder at Ing, “See, told you it would work.”

“Yep!” Ing clung onto Fang’s back as Fang carried the little android in his human form.

Kaiba rolled his eyes as he led the way through the tunnels underneath the city. Kiri lit up the path ahead of them. She still didn’t have full use of her right arm but it wasn’t something that would too much of a problem. Jekyll walked a few places behind the two. He was just a little more quiet than usual. Duke walked behind everyone else. He rolled his eyes as the others talked back and forth to each other.

“Shh!” Kaiba shushed as they walked forward.

Ahead of the group, a couple of mutants scurried around each other. They took a look at the coming group and ran off. Kaiba ran after them. The mutants crawled onto a tunnel. Kaiba looked inside the tunnel and slid down inside. He landed on his feet into the abandoned subway. Kaiba watched as the creatures ran down the subway toward an opened door.

Kiri followed Kaiba down the tunnel. She bumped into him unintentionally receiving a death glare from Kaiba.

“This way,” Kaiba said.

Thought the mysterious door, it was an entirely different vibe and feel. The walls, ceilings and floors were all white and well lit. There was a clean vide throughout the building. There was something else too that Kaiba couldn’t place his finger on. Together Kaiba and Kiri walked into a larger room.

“Looks like you finally made it,” Jumper leaned against a railing on a catwalk. He looked down at the two with a kind of smug expression. He didn’t seem intimidated in any way.

Kiri stepped forward but Kaiba stopped her. He looked up at Jumper, “Well, it wasn’t like you left your address lying around.”

Jumper shrugged, “I don’t have a home. I drift, body to body, home to home.”

“You never seen so far from you’re original body,” Kiri said

“There’s a saying, “Home is where your heat is.” And frankly, my heart is here. I take very good care of this body. And I’ll everything I can to protect myself.”

“I see,” Kaiba said quietly.

“That means; I’ll kill you before you can even touch me!” Jumper vanished and appeared behind Kaiba.

Kiri turned and grabbed onto Jumper with her right hand. She stepped to one side and threw him across the room. Before he could get onto his feet again, Kaiba dashed forward. Jumper was quicker though, by the time Kaiba tried to attack him Jumper had already disappeared. He appeared suddenly and started attacking Kaiba with quick and precise movements. Kaiba took several steps back and did his best to dodge and parry. The compartment in Kiri’s left arm opened and the contraption placed a sword in her hand. She grabbed the sword with both hands and tried to attack Jumper while his attention was distracted.

He saw her coming easily and ducked. Jumper’s movements were smooth and effortless, he sidestepped and pivoted behind her and grabbed Kiri’s neck. Kiri switched her grip on the sword and drove the blade behind her, trying to stab him that way. Jumper stepped to one side avoiding the attack with his grip on her neck. He pulled her down to the ground and slammed her head on a railing. Kiri’s vision temporarily went dark as she tried to recover from the blow. She slid to her feet in a daze.

With Kiri in no immediate condition to assist, Jumper focused his attention on Kaiba. He disappeared and reappeared in front of him. Kaiba jumped back, slashing with the blades in his arm. After one slash, Jumper was nowhere to be seen. Jumper’s laughter could be heard echoing around the large room. Kaiba looked around cautiously.

Jumper laughed, “Oh Kaiba, I do have to say, you are quite the person. Now, I know we haven’t known each other for long but I can just tell from personal experience with others that you are the son of a rich father aren’t you. The question is why are you here? Daddy issues? Spoiled Rich Kid Syndrome? What is it? Why do you care? These people will just end up being statistics in a few months anyway. At least this way, they matter.”

“What about you? Why do you help subject people to painful experiments?” Kaiba asked.

“Yes, but they all thank him in the end…before their mind capabilities degrade into animalistic instincts,” Jumper didn’t sound like he cared at all. “Unlike you, I don’t care. As long I get my pay I could care less.”

Kaiba looked in the direction he thought he heard the voice originate before echoing, “I doubt you would have that outlook if you were the one being tested on.”

“I doubt I would,” Jumper laughed, “But I’m not. And neither are you. So again, why do you care?”

Kaiba looked around. The direction of the voice was completely different than where he last heard it. He decided to answer in order to keep Jumper talking.

“It’s my job to care,” Kaiba said.

“Don’t give me that bull crap,” Jumper sounded annoyed. He sighed, “I guess I’ll just have to find the answer myself.”

Jumper appeared suddenly in front of Kaiba. He grabbed Kaiba’s neck. Kaiba felt a sharp pain though his head as their eyes locked. Jumper smiled and laughed as he inched his way into Kaiba’s mind. Kaiba grabbed Jumper’s wrist with his left hand in an effort to get the hand around his neck off. With his right he tried to stab Jumper with his blades but his opponent grabbed his wrist with his free hand.

“I’d ask you to stop struggling,” Jumper smiled, “but then it would be less fun stealing your body.”

“Aagh!” Kiri shouted as she used her sword in a downward attack behind Jumper.

He looked over his shoulder and disappeared. The sword hit the ground, not even grazing the body jumper. She looked around; her vision was a little glitch still from the impact. Kiri stood defensively around Kaiba, doing her duty to protect him. Jumper appeared again to her left. The compartment in her arm opened again and placed a gun in her hand. She turned quickly and unloaded the on him. Jumper somehow avoided all the bullets and teleported the short distance between them. He struck her in the face causing her to stagger back. Kiri tried to fight back but Jumper grabbed her right fist in the middle of a punch. Jumper ran past her and grabbed the back of her neck. He threw her over the edge of the railing.

“Stop interrupting you little wretch!” Jumper shouted as he tossed her over.

Kiri fell into a tub of liquid on the level below. Upon impact of the liquid, error messages appeared in Kiri’s vision. The thick liquid chemical clogged her filters as she tried desperately to get out and assist Kaiba. Slowly, she found in more and more difficult to move. She tried to call out but naturally no one heard her. Kiri dropped to the bottom of the tub with a metallic sound and lay motionless.

Jumper sighed and looked over his shoulder, “Now that we’re alone, let’s finish what we started.”

He walked over to Kaiba and lifted his head. Racked with a mind-numbing headache, Kaiba couldn’t move as he gripped his head in pain. Jumper looked into Kaiba’s eye.

His smile grew wider, “They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I can say for a fact that they defiantly are on to something.”

Kaiba felt his mind slipping the longer he looked into Jumper’s eyes. Colors started to blend and blur and it was also getting harder and harder to concentrate. He tried to look around for Kiri, at least that what he thought her name was, but she was nowhere to be seen. In his mind, faces had no names and words were starting to lose meaning. Muscled didn’t do what he wanted them to; no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t move. He couldn’t hold himself up with his own strength and depended on Jumper to hold him up. Kaiba shivered as the surrounding air felt cold all of a sudden.

“Fath—,” Kaiba muttered weakly. It couldn’t really be called a mutter really, more like a meek sound of weak resistance.

Jumper sighed, “Oh, Kaiba, just give up.”

Weak and barely functional, Kaiba collapsed. Jumper’s own body slumped over as well. For a few moments, nothing happened. Suddenly, Kaiba opened his eyes.

He sat up and stretched. When he was finished, he looked at his hands and smiled. He stood up and walked around Jumper’s body, stretching out his legs. All of a sudden he started to laugh uncontrollably.

“Oh, Kaiba,” he said out loud, “I can get used to this. You are going to make a nice fit. I didn’t find my answer though, oh well; it isn’t going to matter now.” He looked down at the second body at his feet, “What to do…what to do…”

Kaiba looked up when he heard something down the hall. He narrowed his eyes. That’s right; there were others to take care of. It would be easier in this new body. He raised his hand and partially extended the blade. Kaiba winced slightly, he wasn’t yet used to pain. He sighed. This would have to do. Besides, with their guard down, they won’t know what hit them.

~§~

“Kaiba!?” Sirius turned suddenly, knocking over his cup of coffee onto the floor.

Bridget, his new temporary private secretary, dropped the folders she was carrying onto the desk and grabbed a box of tissues. She started cleaning up the mess on the floor, avoiding the bits of glass from the mug until later.

“Are you alright, sir? You didn’t cut yourself or something did you? I’ll get this cleaned up right away!” she said as she dabbed up the coffee. She laid down a piece of tissue and started placing broken pieced of the mug onto it. When she ran out of her own stash she looked up onto the desk to reach for more.

Bridget stopped. She stood up and looked out the window where Sirius was looking. When she didn’t see anything she looked back at him, “Mr. Galaxy? Are you alright, sir?” He didn’t answer. His attention was undivided. Bridget tried again, “Sirius!”

“What?” Sirius looked at her.

“Are you alright, sir?” Bridget asked, “You weren’t responding.”

“Oh,” Sirius nodded, trying to grasp reality, “Yes, yes, I’m fine.” He looked down at the mess on the floor and stooped down to clean it up.

Bridget joined him, “If you don’t mind me asking, what was all that about?”

“Nothing, I just though I heard someone call me, that’s all,” he still seemed very out of it, “I just must be tired.”

“Sir, I can clean this up if you need to splash cold water on your face,” Bridget offered.

Sirius nodded, “Yeah, I think I’ll do that.” Sirius stood up and walked toward the door. He stopped a moment and turned around, “Have you ever had that feeling that someone you love is in trouble and you just can’t shake that feeling?”

Bridget sat on her legs, “I couple of times. Do you think something happened?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius said.

Bridget tried to console the worried father, “If you’d like I could give everyone in your family a call.”

“No,” Sirius shook his head, “I think I should do that myself.”

“Alright then,” Bridget nodded, “Shall I hold your calls?”

Sirius opened the door and looked over his shoulder, “Naturally, you’re the best in the business at holding a call. I’d hate to keep you from doing your job.”

Bridget saluted, “Always an honor, Mr. Galaxy, sir!”