Radioactive: Chapter Twenty

Radioactive

Chapter Twenty

~Doctor! Doctor!~

The others ran into the hallway from the subway system. Fang looked around, smelling the air. Ing clung to his back and made obnoxious noises to which Fang told him to “stop or I will rip your arms off”. The little android didn’t seem to take him to seriously and made the noises on a quieter level. The others followed behind them with Jekyll bringing up the rear. Duke walked beside Riu nodding occasionally to what she was saying but not really listening.

Fang led then to a fork in the hall and turned down the left hall leading to a larger room, “This way.”

“Are you sure?” Riu asked, “I think it’s the other way.”

Fang looked over his shoulder, “Are you the one who can track someone through a rain storm though the jungle in the middle of a blinding fog in the middle of the night with smell alone?”

“Well maybe I can!” Riu placed her fists on her hips.

“Unlikely,” Fang stated.

Riu took a few aggressive steps toward Fang, “What was that!? Just because all you can do is smell very far you think you’re better than me!?”

Duke quickly intervened. He grabbed Riu’s arm and held tight. Duke pulled her back away from Fang and didn’t let her go.

“What do you think you’re doing!? Let me go or I’ll gouge your eyes out!” Riu screamed.

“Let it go,” Duke said simply.

Surprisingly, Riu calmed down enough for Duke to loosen his grip on her. She pulled her arm away roughly and stomped off muttering something about how all men were the same. Riu followed Fang down the hallway he had chosen. Duke didn’t follow right away. He looked over his shoulder.

“Are you coming?” Duke asked.

Doctor Jekyll looked down the other hallway. He started walking down the other hallway away from Duke, “I need to check something. I’ll catch up later.” Jekyll waved over his shoulder.

Duke watched for a moment before turning around to follow the others. Jekyll continued down the hallway. He walked past several laboratories with medical equipment still functioning. Half changed humans were strapped to medical beds, the steady tone of the heart rate monitors told the doctor that they were no longer among the living. Jekyll entered a few rooms and glanced at a few computer screens. He absorbed the information that he gathered and kept it in mind.

“Who are you?” the doctor walked in, seeing someone else he didn’t know in his labs, “What are you doing here? Are you one of them?” the doctor nodded in the direction where Fang and the others disappeared to.

Jekyll didn’t answer him. He looked around, “I see you’ve been busy. What exactly have you been working on exactly?”

“I don’t have time to explain to the likes of you, people of inferior minds,” the doctor said.

“Well from the looks of this you have been turning normal humans into others,” Jekyll said, “Seems like something went a little wrong. Instead of keeping their human forms, they changed into different creatures, a mix between human and monster. I guess that happens when you combine human DNA to animal DNA.”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” the doctor defended himself. Then he smiled, “But when I saw the first one change it was like creating a new creature, a new life, that never before existed!”

Jekyll said, “Playing god?”

The doctor smiled, “Well, I only didn’t started for medical research…”

“It gives a rush doesn’t it,” Jekyll stated, “Whether you’re creating or taking something away, it gives a nice good rush to have another person’s life in your hands. Their very fate is in the palm of your hands, either they live,” Jekyll turned toward the half mutant on the medical bed. He walked up and unplugged the heart monitor, “Or they die. All the while, you think you’re in the right.”

The doctor looked curious, “Have you done experiments of this sort too? If so, we could share out different results! Not here of course but maybe a more private location where we can talk without the threat of being discovered. What do you say? Two magnificent minds working together to make a new species!”

Jekyll turned to the doctor and smiled, “I don’t think so.” He threw three scalpels into the doctor’s shoulder.

The doctor staggered back into the wall, “What—!”

“We aren’t the same,” Jekyll said. “You see, you get a thrill out of creating life, I enjoy the thrilling experience of taking it, crushing it and smother every ounce of light out of it. At least I used to. In a way, I guess I still do but I have certain obligations now.”

“Are you going to kill me!?” the doctor asked.

Jekyll shrugged, “I haven’t decided.”

“Please, please don’t kill me!” the doctor begged.

Jekyll walked over to the doctor, “I imagine that you’re victims here begged like that as you changed their very DNA structure. It must have been incredibly painful,” Jekyll dug his heels into the scalpels in the doctor’s shoulder. The doctor screamed in pain as the blades dug deeper. “In fact, you probably did them a favor by killing them. At least now the pain has stopped,” Jekyll looked over at the dead half mutant.

“Ahh!” the doctor screamed as he grabbed Jekyll’s ankle.

“Shh,” Jekyll said, “I’m just getting started. Now as a doctor myself, I find your practice, what’s the word, deplorable.”

“They don’t matter!” the doctor shouted, “No one would have missed them! I made their lives better!”

“You remind me of the people I used to kill,” Jekyll sighed, “They didn’t care either. And let me tell you, that isn’t a good thing. I had what you call a psychotic brake, started killing them as a kind of vigilante to protect the people of my neighborhood.”

“It wasn’t like anyone cared!” the doctor cried in defense.

“I cared for them,” Jekyll stated, “Their friends and family cared.”

“I made them into something beautiful!” the doctor shouted, “I turned them from the scum of the earth into beautiful creatures! Yes, they were in pain but I did the best I could to lessen their pain!”

“I made my victims beautiful too,” Jekyll smiled, “by painting the walls with their blood. Would you like me to do that to you, scum of the world? I can think of several ways to make you, how did you say it, more beautiful.”

The doctor shouted, “No please! Ahh—”

Jekyll threw three more daggers into the doctor’s other shoulder. He stomped his heel into the three new scalpels. The doctor screamed in pain. Jekyll put his foot down. He stood up straight and looked down at the doctor as the man gripped his newest wound.

“You can come in now, Duke,” Jekyll said as he turned and walked across the room.

Duke stepped into the door way. He looked slightly embarrassed for being found out. Duke looked down at the doctor.

“What do you want to do with him?” Duke asked.

“What do I want to do with him?” Jekyll looked over his shoulder and smiled, “I want to slit his stomach opened and paint the walls with his blood. But that’s just what I want. We should bring him into custody. I’m sure the Tower has just a few questions to ask him.”

Duke bent down and yanked a group of three daggers out of his shoulder. The doctor shouted in agony.

“Would you be more gentle you twit!?” the doctor yelled.

“Sorry,” Duke said emotionlessly.

He dug the three blades back into the wound and yanked them out again quickly. With the second set of three scalpels he twisted them first before removing them. He smirked slightly as the doctor cried in pain. Duke turned the doctor and pulled his arms behind his back and tied his wrists together. He pulled the doctor to his feet.

“What now?” Duke asked.

Jekyll turned and walked toward the door, “Bring him to the surface. I’m going to have a chat with Kaiba.”

“I bring him to the surface?” Duke asked, “Why don’t you bring him to the surface?”

“Because I could skin you alive,” Jekyll said as he left.

Duke nodded, “That’s a pretty good reason.”

“I’d say so,” Jekyll stated.