Cyberspace; The Ultimus Collection

Chapter 28, Retaliation and Regeneration

Leech strolled through the abandoned city streets, humming an unfamiliar tune and kicking rocks as he went along. The area was deathly silent, as the panic and chaos morphed into a calm trembling terror. Family and friends hid together in shops, restaurants, and alleyways, all praying the creature wouldn't find them. Slowly the ruins returned to their normal luster, no longer resembling the scars Leech had left on this world. But while the physical scars faded, the mental and emotional ones still persisted.

This is starting to get a little dull. Leech thought to himself. I might be missing out on some great meals by just walking in a straight line. Let's consult the map. Leech approached a city map mounted near a small grassy park. He began to run his finger across the map and its legend while he read it. Okay, so I'm southside downtown. Arts district is to the north, audio is to the east, games district is further south, and visual is to the west. But the core is also to the north... and so is west street. They do have a foods district... that's in the northwest. And they've also got a bunch of universal gates that are just scattered all around the damn place, there's not even a cardinal direction for those they just look all haphazard. This place is a fucking maze. A man peaked his head out from his hiding place, seeing Leech distracted. I could go to the zoo, or maybe an aquarium? Aw look the science district has a dodo bird reserve, that's cute. Seeing his chance, the man darted from his spot, hoping to be able to escape this waking nightmare. He passed behind Leech, who caught him in his periphery. Unfortunately, the man was a little too close to Leech, who snatched him up with his tail. Leech dragged the man over to himself and proceeded to crush his skull underneath his foot. Leech brought the man's corpse up to his mouth where he took a bite, and promptly spit his flesh back out. "Blech! They're better fresh." He did all of this without looking away from the map. "Oh, here we go! Big Billy's Buffet, that's perfect! Finally, someone who gets my sense of appetite!" Leech planned to make his start over to his new destination, only to be rudely interrupted.

"Stop! This has gone on long enough!" Catelin yelled out.

"Ugh, you guys again? Shouldn't you be mourning or something?"

"The fallen can always be remembered, but we are running out of time to stop you." G-1 remarked. "If we are to let this continue, at this rate you will eat the world into extinction." 

"God, love the sound of that." Leech whispered to himself. "So what, are y'all ready for round 3? I'm not entirely sure if that's a good idea, seeing how you appear to be losing fighters with each confrontation." 

"You have prattled on long enough, parasite!" G-1 marched over to Leech.

"Oh okay, so the tin can is the one fighting me now. No no wait, I can do better... Pillsbury Doughbot! Nailed it." 

"You just hope that you don't actually turn out to be more bark than bite!" 

"I'm sorry but if we've learned anything it's that I can in fact bite." 

"Then try biting this!" G-1 swung his massive fists at Leech. Despite his size, G-1 was surprisingly quick, quicker than Leech had anticipated. He took several blows from the metal menace. G-1 knocked Leech around for a bit before reconfiguring one of his arms into a cannon and aiming it directly at Leech's head. 

"Can we talk about this?!" Leech begged.

"Your compliance isn't a factor!" The cannon fired and blew Leech's head clean off. Alyson and Catelin stood in shock; mouths wide open as Leech's body toppled over. 

"It seriously couldn't have been that simple." Catelin lamented. 

"Occam's razor, the simplest solution is usually the correct one." G-1 morphed back to normal and attempted to rejoin Alyson and Catelin. However, a particular red, clawed hand grabbed ahold of his leg. The three all looked down at Leech's body, which was now convulsing on the ground. 

"It's not over, is it?" Catelin once again complained. Suddenly a splatter of mystery body fluids erupted from Leech's neck and a new head, identical to the old one, sprouted forth. Leech began to gasp for air as the team gasped and screamed in horror. 

"You know, I feel like I was being nice to you all! I could've just killed all of you from the start but no! I decided to have some fun, give you people a chance! Well guess what! You better start praying to your god, because I'm fresh out of mercy!" Leech's tone of voice was... different. Gone was the jovial, theatrical, and witty Leech. Now what stood was a harbinger of undying, unyielding rage, hunger, and bloodlust. 

"Go! Get the others! I'll hold him off!" G-1 exclaimed. He charged back into the fight with Leech.

"I'm not going to let you do this alone! You'll die!" Alyson argued. She turned to Catelin. "Call the boys and tell them to come here immediately. We are out of options, they need to stop whatever they're doing and come now, whether they like it or not!" Catelin nodded and took out her phone to call Derick. Meanwhile, G-1 brawled with Leech. He had to rapidly reconfigure his body in order to keep Leech on his toes, but even then, he wasn't doing much. Leech was so much different than before. He was faster. He hit harder. Was he seriously just toying with them the whole time? Is this what the monster was truly like? 

"Even after all this time, I still don't think you people know what I'm capable of, what I am!" Leech caught both of G-1's fists in his hands. The two began to push off each other like two sumo wrestlers. "You came at me talking such a big talk, like just because you were made of metal, I couldn't bite through you! What a load of bullshit!" Leech used his strength to force G-1's legs into the pavement. "I'm a data vampire, a virus that can feed off of any kind of coding!" Leech wrapped his tail around one of G-1's arms and used the extra leverage to rip it off. "Did you really think I would be limited to organic meats?" Leech scarfed down his new metal meal, thinking that he had proven a point by leaving him literally disarmed.

"And did you think you were the only one with regenerative properties?" G-1 began to convert is robotic bult into a new functional arm, slimming him down and returning him to fighting condition. 

"You've got more power under that hood than I gave you credit for. No wonder you got the cheap shot on me. But let me reassure you, this configuration power of yours won't save you. I want to be absolutely clear; I will break you beyond repair!" Leech's power began to rise. His strength could be felt climbing past all known limitations. "Prepare to meet your maker android!" Leech's bloodlust was promptly interrupted when a golden anger soared threw the air and flew directly into his open eye. "GAH! Mother fucker!" He clutched his eye as Alyson entered their battlegrounds. 

"You are not hurting anyone anymore!" She shouted. Alyson bent down and assisted G-1 out of the ground. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" It was clear her maternal instincts had kicked in.

"I am fine, my system is still fully operational. I am without major damage."

"Oh, good." She smiled warmly before focusing her rage back onto their aggressor. Leech pulled out the arrow, along with his eye, and looked back at his assailant with burning fury. It took a few seconds for the seething beast's eye to grow back. 

"You people are just making me all kinds of pissed off today! I mean seriously, what did I ever do to you!?" 

"You killed our citizens!" G-1 answered.

"You killed my husband!" Alyson added. 

"Oh right, I did do that." It was as if Leech had a brief moment of realization. 

"Yeah, so we are finally going to put this issue to rest and avenge all of the innocent people you've senselessly slaughtered!" Alyson boasted. 

"Oh come now, can you at least admit the girl deserved it? I mean she looked exactly like that no-good, son of a..." Leech trailed off, distracted by something he had spotted to his side. The group turned in confusion to see what Leech was staring at. And that's when they saw him, standing off not too far from the fight.

"No by all means Leech, do go on. Who did she look like?" Vincent had joined the fray.