Symbiosis: At World's End

What Happens When You Play God

Merrick couldn't shake the gut feeling that something was wrong. It had started a few days ago and only gotten worse as time went on. He tried to distract himself by coming up with more scenarios of escape as well as just daydreaming, but he kept coming back to the knot in his stomach.

Most of his daydreams and unfocused thoughts gravitated towards Jason and Kelly. He wondered if they had reached the meeting by now and were waiting for him and Brianna, or if they had been captured and brought here as well.

He also wondered how Brianna was doing. She had barely recovered from the infection before he was captured and dragged off to wherever he was. Hopefully, she was okay.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a clanging on the door. Two guards marched through it and slapped a pair of handcuffs over his wrists.

"The doc wants you in attendance for one of her demonstrations."

The guards escorted him through the hallways and up into a large laboratory. Wendell was waiting there, seeming very pleased with herself.

"This is perhaps my finest work yet! This will certainly be an effective weapon against the enemy."

Merrick rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut. With any luck, this was where his symbiote was being held and he could escape. He looked around the lab, searching for any sign of where it was being held. So far, nothing.

His search was cut short when a group of men and women in official looking clothing walked in and took seats that had been set up on an observation platform. Dr. Wendell smiled and addressed her audience.

"Welcome councilmembers! I've brought you all here for a dual demonstration of our artificial-symbiote program. First, I would like to introduce you to AS-04, my latest creation!"

Dr. Wendell pressed a button on a control panel in front of her, which caused a door in the floor of the testing chamber to open, and a hosted symbiote to rise out on a platform. This one was primarily black with red eyes, but it had a dark green patterning on it that formed many pointed patterns on its body. It had a slightly bulkier build than Merrick and was a good two, maybe three inches taller.

"This symbiote is capable of spraying an incredibly powerful acid from its palms and is incredibly fast. It also has X-Ray vision for tracking purposes as well as near perfect camouflage."

The council applauded and Wendell bowed her head.

"Next, I wanted to show you a training simulation we created for our current test subjects. AS-01 through 04 will participate in this simulation, which will test all their abilities and their natural combat prowess."

She pressed another button, which opened three doors at the back of the testing chamber. Medusa, Terry, and Paula all walked out, symbiotes attached to them. The test chamber began to rumble as sections of it began to rise and fall, creating an artificial environment. Several sunken areas filled with water. Turrets sprang out of all sides and powered up.

"In this simulation, the test subjects will attempt to destroy all the turrets without being shot themselves. The simulation will begin in 3... 2... 1... Begin!"

Immediately, all symbiotes leapt away as the turrets unleashed a storm of electric blasts. Paula immediately dove into the water and unsheathed the bone spikes in her arms. She rocketed out of the water and slashed a turret in two. She ducked out of the way as a turret blasted at her and sent her own electrical blast at it, causing it to overload and shut down.

Medusa simply formed massive claws on her hands and began slicing through everything she could reach. Several turrets locked onto her and fired, but she just leapt up and launched a bladed tendril from the top of her wrist and sliced them to ribbons.