Psycho Gem

Chapter 15: Dead Weight

Tracks watched as Magus collapsed to the ground. The searing headache scrambled his senses, and his entire body was aching beyond anything he had ever experienced before. He looked ahead and, when his eyes finally focused, saw the burning town in front of him. He became mesmerised by the brightness, the death... he snapped himself out of those thoughts, wondering why he was thinking of something like that. He swallowed the pain, summoning as much strength as he could and stood up, limping towards Magus' unconscious body.

"Magus! C'mon! Wake up you dingy prick!" He yelled, shaking Magus' unconscious body.

At first, he thought he was dead. Tracks put his ear to Magus' chest and heard his heart was still beating, but he didn't know if that would last. He grabbed Magus and tried his best to lift him, but he was in too much pain for that. He then took Magus' arm and slowly started dragging him away from the pile of dead half-breeds behind him. He wasn't going very fast, but it was progress nonetheless. Tracks was sweating uncontrollably from both the fire's heat and the stress and exhaustion. After about five minutes, he managed to drag Magus into the forest right outside the town. He turned to look at Magus, his skin was extremely pale and the visible veins were black. He was covered in dirt from being dragged, but that didn't matter. They needed to run... somewhere.

Tracks noticed something in the corner of his eye. Blue portals opened up by the town and B.U.R.N.E. soldiers came walking out. They were checking out a disturbance in a neutral world and making sure the situation was contained. Tracks saw them and tried to drag Magus even faster, knowing what would happen if the soldiers found them. He yanked as hard as he could on Magus' arm, trying to pull him faster but it wouldn't budge. He noticed that his cape was stuck on a bush, a giant hole being ripped through the middle. He stumbled over and tried to get the cape loose. He broke off the branch that wasn't letting go, but one of the soldiers heard the noise. He waved another agent over to him and they began to head into the forest. Tracks was holding onto Magus' body and hiding behind a tree, out of their line of sight, but he could hear their steps getting closer. One of the soldiers got close enough to see someone's leg. Tracks noticed a red laser dot on his leg and panicked. Grabbing Magus, he hurled himself behind a wider tree to his left. It was a big tree, about as wide as a car, so it was a decent cover.

"It's the target! Shoot on sight!" the soldier said, noticing Tracks behind the trees.

Both of the soldiers began to open fire, blasting chunk after chunk of the tree away with each shot. Tracks was desperately making sure Magus' legs or arms weren't in the line of fire. He was frantically trying to come up with a way to get out of this situation, he couldn't run, and he couldn't stay there either. He was beginning to lose hope when he noticed the bracelet that Magus gave him the previous day. He remembered that it was to be used as a last resort, and this seemed like an appropriate time. He tried to remember how to use it, examining it through his panic.

'I think I'm supposed to tap this little ruby here, was it five times?' he thought to himself.

He tapped the gem as fast as he could. On the third tap, he felt the bracelet tighten around his wrist, followed by a piercing, sharp pain in the middle of where the ruby was. He watched his skin turn to a greyish white as he felt his arm numb out, followed by the rest of his body. He couldn't feel the pain anymore. Then he felt an excruciating soreness in his jaw as his upper and lower eye teeth were growing, as were his fingernails. He felt stronger and faster, but he also felt extremely... thirsty.

As if through instinct, he stood up effortlessly and ran around the tree and towards one of the soldiers at an astounding speed. The shots the soldier fired barely phased him as he ran up and slashed at the soldier's neck with his claws. Blood splattered on the tree next to them as Tracks savagely tore at the poor soldier's throat. The other one was watching in horror as his comrade was being murdered by this monster. Tracks turned around to see the other soldier standing there, his legs shaking. He rushed at the man, pouncing on top of him and going for his neck. Tracks bit into the soldier, slurping up the blood that poured out. It wasn't long until he was dead, but Tracks kept on feeding. The noises that were made alerted the other soldiers in the area. They all ran over to find out what was going on, only to see Tracks looking over his shoulder at them, darkness in his eyes. After a solid five minutes of carnage, all of the soldiers were dead. Any one of them that tried to call for backup was silenced. Tracks looked around at the death he had caused and shook his head, coming back to his normal senses. He saw what he had done and started hyperventilating. He didn't mean to kill that many people, let alone that violently. He crouched down, clutching at his head with frantic breaths. He didn't know what to think. He looked down at himself and saw the blood staining his clothes. He was a monster, he was like... Tracks snapped out of his panic, he needed to get away from here and find someplace safer.