Ink Me Insane (Book One)

Thirty Five

Close, but no cigar.

It's an odd saying. A jesting phrase for when someone fails. It actually comes from a fairground of all things. "Nice try, but no cigar" was a variation, on the now common phrase, said at fair stalls. People used to play games to win a cigar, so when they inevitably failed the often rigged games...it was close, but no cigar. Rene felt that way. She had been playing a game that was rigged for her lose much like the like fair games and the saying echoed within her mind as she desperately wiggled fingers to latch onto the weapon. Close, but no war axe.

If only she had enough strength left, perhaps then she could lift another part of her arsenal off the living weapon that was her skin, but the heaving breathes and erratic heartbeats, mixed with the tinges of black in her vision, suggested it would be impossible.

Electricity crawled through her body again, an eel firing all her nerve ends. Rene bit her tongue, the tangy metallic of her own blood making her gag. No wonder they made people getting electrocuted have some to bite down on. Well, at least she wasn't strapped down while she got fried. No, she could spasm on the floor like a dignified crazy patient.

Again, she reached out amidst the pain to find the axe. So close...a slight scuffle could be heard before the axe skidded into her grasp. Looking up, Rene saw Michael's grim face fighting off a guard. He barely glanced to meet her eyes, long enough to determine she had actually gotten the axe. Dang it. She hated owing people things.

Wait...the axe was made of metal...well crap physics did not like her.

The blue surge burst forth, a majority of it flowing towards the lightning rod of an axe. Rene gritted her teeth, ready for the pain and too stubborn to let loose the only weapon she had. Surprisingly though, the shock did not come. Instead the electricity, even that which had tried to prickle her skin, was absorbed within the weapon. A slight smirk dared to peek its head. Man Rene loved crazy sometimes.

Rene flipped over, holding the axe overhead as a block, she watched in amazement as the sparks continued to be enveloped within the axe. Dr. Laurel stumbled back, the cruel smile slipping from his face. Rene pushed herself back up, shoving one end of the axe into the ground. It responded by flowing the same blue current that Dr. Laurel had through itself. Now this was a battle axe.

"Why so surprised doctor? I thought you were the expert on all things dark."

An inhuman straggled sound of anger and desperation escaped the doctor's lips. Rene took a hesitant step back, suddenly unsure.

"You will not keep me from my destiny." His voice raised an octave. "You will not steal what is rightfully mine!"

The glowing blue sludge picked up speed as the movement became more obviously with each passing second, visible even beneath his skin. Rene swept forward, spinning the axe out in a testing arc. Dr. Laurel didn't even bother dodging; instead he caught it with the flesh of his arm. Rene jerked, forcing the blade of the axe out from its embedded sheath. The blue sprinkled out, looking like a child's glitter glue in the weird lighting, onto the ground dying the rusty water a purplish tinge. The doctor's advances did not slow. Damn, this guy really was like Frankenstein and his monster mixed into one.

"I am the Earth's Savior, I am the chosen one."

Rene struggled to remain calm against the madness leaking out of the scientist. She could feel the charge in the air, and not just from his electricity. Something in that concoction of ink seemed to heighten everything in the hall in an unnatural way. The darkness was spreading with each drip of blue into the water. Despite her twirling slashes, he continued to advance, continuing to leak more and more of the toxin. Her shoes squished and squeaked with the sloshy movements she was making to keep distant between herself and the doctor.