Imperium

Chapter 22 Part 2

Josh can feel the life being sucked out if him by the machine. Is it too late to stop it, is this how Josh is to die?

Josh starts fighting the process by drawing them back. All he succeeds in doing is slowing down the rate of their departure. His limbs all start to go numb, and he loses control over his whole body. He loses his sight as the nanobots flurry out of his eyes.

"It's too late to resist now. I keep my promises, after this I'll gladly let you leave. Too bad it'll be in a body bag," the woman lets out maniacal laugh.

Why do all these guys have to be crazy, Josh thinks as he can feel himself get weaker. Josh gets a crazy idea, his nanobots were inactive when he first entered the pod. They seemed to come back to life as soon as the machine went on. Maybe he can use his ability to draw back his nanobots.

Josh starts focusing, the look on his face, a look of sheer power and determination. He uses the few nanobots in his body to draw the rest back.

If it wasn't for his ability, he is sure he couldn't do this. Maybe these nanobots aren't so bad, but it's them that put him in this situation. Josh starts drawing them back in, his face blue from his lost of breathe. If he doesn't finish this soon, he is good as dead.

He can feel the nanobots course through his body again, they distribute themselves around his body, as if they were programmed. His throat starts clearing and his body starts going back to normal.

The energy he has starts to return to his body. Josh can feel his muscles all over, he starts regaining all the control of his limbs. Josh clenches his fists as the last of his nanobots go back. His pupils return to normal, and he regains his sight.

Josh levitates himself with down until his feet touch the floor of the pod. A deafening blast cuts through the air like a knife. The glass like walls of the pod fly through the air. Josh then levitates himself to the floor of the room.

The shuttering sound of the glass under Josh's feet is the only sound heard as he walked to a one way mirror across the room.

Josh feels invincible as he walks over the glass, he looks straight into the one way mirror. It shatters at Josh's gaze, and the glass falls to the floor.

Behind the glass stood a woman with grey hair, she wore a labcoat and rectengular spectacles. She stood beside a redhead who had eyes of a killer. They stand still for a moment, Josh totally frozen. No, no, it can't be.

Josh's mouth drops open in surprise, he knew the woman infront of him. The redhead next to the woman with silver hair, this is none other than Shaun's mother. The look in her eyes is vicious and cruel, how did Shaun live with such evil in his house? Come to think of it, I've never seen this look on her face. This must be how she always looks, she must've been hiding it all this time.

The silver haired woman turns to look at Shaun's mother, and then back at Josh. Josh takes a stepback before lifting himself into the air, he lifts up the shards of glass on the floor.

Josh rotates the shards of glass in a circle around himself. Shaun's mother jumps out of the observation room and lands on broken glass.

"Mara!" Shaun's mother turns to look at the grey haired woman. "Entertain me."

Mara turns his gaze back at Josh, eyeing him from top to bottom. A look of disgust fills her eyes, she steps forward coming closer to Josh. Josh throws a shard of glass at Mara, Mara catches the shard of glass in between her fingers.

"Surrender now, and I promise not to hurt you, much," she chuckles as the words escape from her mouth.

"You're-... but you're-... you're Shaun's mother."

"Talk about stating the obvious."

"Why? Why would you do this?"

"Power is everything. We saw it fit to experiment with nanotechnology, volunteers were few. So we needed every volunteer we could get, the Controller might have kidnapped you, but I gave him the go ahead."

"Your friend Shaun has been looking for you. He's become more of a nuisance now, a real pain in the rear. Don't worry, he won't be a problem for long."

"You witch of a woman," he says, his voice sounds like a whisper, but she heard every word.

"You might have hope of getting out of here now, hope is a very dangerous thing, I'll destroy every bit of it in you."

A glass is dropped, the moment it falls on the ground and shatters, Mara has already jumped up in the air. With no time to move, Josh tries moving back as her fist connects with his stomach.

The attack sends Josh falling over broken glass. He groans in pain as the glass stabs him on the back. Josh sends Mara flying across the room. Mara hits the wall with her back, "Luck shot."

Shards of glass fly across the room in Mara's direction. She dodges them all, and Josh gets stabbed in the thigh. An icicle is embedded in his thigh. He can tell that the icicle is from Mara. A dangerous ability, that can easily kill a person.

Mara runs at Josh, Josh starts seeing a green hologram of Mara move forward. The green hologram does a roundhouse kick, Mara then reaches Josh and does a roundhouse kick, Josh dodges it.

Josh punches Mara in the stomach, he realizes that he just punched a woman, not just any woman, Shaun's mother.

The hologram turns around in midair and swings for a punch, Mara then turns and Josh moves out of the way knowing what is coming next.

Mara swings and misses, she then lands on the floor like she is about to do a pushup. Josh pushes Mara back with a few punches, the hologram appears again and takes a few steps back, and so does Mara.

Josh removes the melting icicle in his thigh and throws it back at Mara, the icicle just goes inside of Mara. How is he so fast, Mara thinks. To Josh's surprise, he can hear the thoughts in Mara's head.

Flames fly from Mara's hands, Josh pushes the flames back, as Mara keeps shooting. Mara stops shooting fire, when the fire clears out, ice crystals are in the air headed in Josh's direction. Josh quickly pushes the crystals away. Blood trickles to the floor, a pool of blood forms under Josh. A crystal has embedded itself in Josh's stomach. His knees fold like paper and he goes down on all four. So weak, so, so weak, Josh hears Mara think.

"You spent so much time as a captive that you never learnt how to fully use your ability. Power is nothing when in the hands of fools."

Josh pulls out the icicle. His body starts healing, but he has lost too much blood, his eyes go shut, unconscious.