Virus: Insanity

~3~

  The mutant base was extremely hard to storm. Since it was crawling with mutants, it was heavily fortified. Danger was imminent. It was Stephen and Luna's favorite thing to do. Both of their families had been destroyed by the mutation virus before there had been a resistor. They had both pledged their life to Pureblood, the mutant fighters. They were both eight then. It had almost been seven years since then, and their hatred for the virus and their passion to eradicate it hadn't dimmed since. They wore twin gauntlets, a watch like thing with triggers that fit in between their middle three fingers, the thick band holding a small yet powerful battery. The band itself was a navy blue, and everything else was a glassy silver. Luna had the left-handed one, Stephen had the right. On their respectively opposite wrists, they had another watch-like thing, only this watch had a dial on it and its core glowed blue. These were their weapons they had to use against the mutants, along with their skill and intelligence. Overall, going up against such simple-minded creatures, it was a pretty fair fight.
Getting into the base was the easiest part. The mutants lived in an old government base. The security was top-notch and almost impossible to break into with a computer. Stephen and Luna walked up to the control panel, looking it over. They looked at each other and nodded. Then Luna pointed her left hand at the box, clenching her hand into a fist. Two barbed wires flew out, imbedding themselves in the panel. Electricity rocketed down them, scrambling the panel. She released the triggers, the wires ripping themselves out and retracting into the gauntlet. The door automatically opened, giving them an easy way in. They turned the dials on their watches one click, making a shimmering blue blade appear from their first thumb joint to their elbow. They held their blades diagonally across their chests as they went in, moving slowly and precisely. Every sound triggered a response, from the creaking of the building to the scuttling that seemed to come from everywhere. No mutants yet, but that didn't mean anything. They were bound to strike soon.
The deeper they went into the base, the darker it got, and the soft blue glow pulsing from their blades more welcome. They stuck close together, ready to back each other up if need be. A sudden gust of wind almost knocked Luna over, startling her. She searched for Stephen's presence, nervousness creeping up her heart like vines. Upon finding he was gone, she whispered his name. It echoed creepily and had no other response, scaring her more. She hunched her shoulders and bent over slightly, making herself a smaller target for...something. She kept on, turning as she walked to reduce the chance of surprise. As she was walking backwards, she bumped into something. The something grabbed her arms and wrestled them behind her back, crushing the Taser and glow-blade. She shrieked, trying to pull herself free.
"Let me GO!" she yelled. The brutish thing didn't respond, simply walking her in a circle to face a different direction. The lights slammed on, blinding her for a couple seconds. When the spots disappeared from her eyes, she saw the mess of mutants facing her with one standing in the middle on a wide cylinder. It was a young girl with long blond hair, a short, willowy stature, and sparkling purple eyes. Luna gasped. It was like she was looking in a mirror. She watched in awe as the girl was surrounded by billowing purple smoke, flying down to right in front of her in the smoke. As the smoke faded, the form of the girl appeared again. She was smirking, her eyes shining like violet pearls. They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments. Then the girl spoke. Even her voice sounded like Luna's.
"Hello, sister."  

Luna woke up to the voice of her twin and the feeling of movement. She opened her eyes, revealing the face of her sister. She sat up, looking into her twin's sad eyes.

          "What's wrong, Sola?" she asked.
          "I'm leaving," her sister replied. "I can't stay."
          "Why?" Luna asked. When she didn't get an answer, anger began to boil inside of her. "Sola, why?"
          "I've got the mutant virus," she said. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry, but the vaccinations that come in the mail just aren't helping anymore."
          "But you can't leave!" Luna snapped. "Where will you go?"
          "With the other mutants. Look, Luna." She grabbed her sister's shoulders. "Don't stop the meds. I tried it as a game, but this virus is anything but." Luna nodded, tears flowing down her cheeks. Sola gave her a quick hug before standing up, grabbing a duffel bag and walking out. Luna curled up, sobbing into her knees.
Luna had thought she would never see her sister again, but here she was. Her brain refused to wrap around the fact that her sister was a mutant, and she was standing right there.  It was another mutant, a shapeshifter, it had to be.
             "No," she said. "No. You're not my sister."
             "What are you talking about?" she said. "Of course I am. I came here when we were seven."
             "My sister," Luna said, voice quavering slightly. "My sister is dead. She died when she became a mutant." Sola's eyes darkened.
    "Then my sister died when she became a Pureblood," she snapped, turning around and smoking back up to her perch. Luna felt a slight pang in her heart, but shoved it downwards. Sola looked down across the span of mutants and her sister with obvious authority. "Say hello to my sister," she said, gesturing to Luna, "the Pureblood." The mutants booed and yelled at her. One spit acid at her, making a shallow hole in front of her. She backed into her captor, then got a good look at him. He had maroon skin with reptilian eyes, fangs, and arms with painful-looking spines on them. She gulped and took a step forward. "She and all of you will watch as we test our new virus on her partner!" Sola gestured to a glass cylinder with Stephen chained to the sides inside of it. Luna gasped. Not another one, she thought. "This virus isn't like the ones we were infected with," Sola continued. "This virus is controlled. By adding a little bit of the vaccination into the virus, the effects stop after the mutation. Sadly, the mutation is permanent."
    Stephen woke to the sound of shallow, quick breathing and pain in his wrists and ankles. Upon opening his eyes, he discovered that the breathing was his own. He tried to move, making the pain shoot up his arms and legs. He groaned and shook his head, trying to pull himself together. Looking outward, he saw millions of mutants cheering and his partner watching in fear. He smiled encouragingly. She didn't smile back. He couldn't hear exactly what the woman speaking in the center was saying, or what she looked like, but one word resonated through his brain: Survivors. Whenever it faded from his mind, she said it again and it bounced through his mind like a ball would in a box. Survivors.
    "No!" he heard Luna scream, snapping him out of his reverie. Chaos was erupting below, all the mutants flooding towards his partner. The mess was too much for his brain, so he closed his eyes, shutting all of it out. He waited for his mind to settle in so he could focus on his options. Okay. You're in a glass cylinder. You're chained to a mglass cylinder. Glass is a break- His concentration was shattered as the glass around him was, making him fall to the ground. The air was thick and smoky and wherever he moved there was glass under his hands, knees, and feet. Bewildered, he kept his eyes closed and just focused on breathing. Just breathe. Just breathe. Just- He choked. He inhaled, but he couldn't exhale. He inhaled madly, trying to get a breath. He stopped breathing entirely, groaning as excruciating pain screamed in his left leg. He fell onto his right side, grabbing his pained leg. He opened his eyes to look at it, scared into keeping them open. His leg was bending backwards and inwards, crushing his knee bone. He pulled his pant leg up and nearly puked. It was turning green, shifting his bones and muscles so his leg was like that of a grasshopper's. His feet were changing too; he ripped off his shoe and sock off to see that three of his five toes were gone and his remaining ones and his heel were lengthening and becoming slightly pointed. He could barely hear the cheering of the mutants over his own pained cries. His respective arm began to change within milliseconds after his leg was done, going through the same process. It was becoming green and hard-shelled, and two of his fingers were shrinking, his thumb rotating back in his hand so it was right in the middle of the bottom of his wrist, elongating and warping like the other two. The next thing to change was the left half of his face. It changed into the hard, green shell that the rest of that half of his body was covered in, his mouth becoming bigger and lined with jagged teeth, his eye splitting in two and the two new ones becoming a glossy yellow, like droplets of paint. The final part of the transformation was the wings. They ripped out of the back of his shirt, two on either half. Then the transformation stopped. Stephen exhaled, breathing fast and heavily. His wings slowly lowered themselves onto his back, crossing each other near the ends and twitching. The room was silent except for his labored breathing. The world was tinted yellow and looked like he was in a bubble. Then the world toppled and faded to black.

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{A.N. Hey, guys! Don't forget to vote and/or comment if you liked this chapter or any of the other ones! I appreciate it}