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Chapter 16

A still-life picture of brimstone and hellfire surrounded the lab.

Micah's boot stepped on something jutting from the sand. He looked down. It was opaque glass. The fiery breath of the alpha-creature had solidified the sand. Dark glass lay everywhere amongst the blood splattered area before him, and the bodies.

The turned bodies of his new unit, now with the face of the enemy. He swallowed his urge to wretch. He was thankful they were dead.

He dared to look up.

In the air, he saw the grotesque mutation in all of its disturbing glory, hovering ten feet above the lab. It was still as ice.

Its eyes glowed emerald green. Its open maw glowed red with still fire. Its claws were stretched out menacingly. It had no wings.

And it was looking right at him.

Micah quickly returned to the control room. He closed the door behind him. He resumed time.

The alpha-creature's voice had quieted. But they still heard it, muffled beyond the lab's walls.

Micah walked to the main console and tapped in some commands, eidetically remembering Oberon's own commands into it.

"What are you doing?" Ulises asked.

A small door on a cylindrical pillar standing up to the ceiling near the main console slid open. Inside it was a large glass container with a metal top and bottom, filled with a serum Micah had devised with the alpha-creature's sample, using Oberon's notes.

The Doctor had already started on the idea of reversing the Biogen's affects. Micah, with Ulises' and Farah's help, as well as the help of a couple science officers, finished Oberon's work, or so they all hoped. They even hoped they could eradicate the virus off the planet forever, using their new anti-weapons.

"Lofty goals," Micah responded to Ulises.

Micah proceeded to inject an extra amount of serum into one warhead. He stopped time. He then tapped a command, locking on target.

He heard a small rumble as the warhead rolled into locking position.

He fired. He resumed time.

The alpha-creature cried the loudest scream they had ever heard it cry.

* * *

He and Ulises stood outside, below the alpha-creature, time-stopped, Micah the only one able to move. He noted how the creature looked to have not been damaged at all, despite its loud cry of pain during the warhead attack. Shrapnel lay scattered everywhere.

He touched Ulises' upper arm.

"-ood Lord that's thing's ugly," Ulises said, becoming un-stuck. "Yes, sir, what is it?"

"Welcome to my stopped world."

"Huh?" Ulises said. He looked up, and saw the alpha-creature, just as still as Ulises himself had been seconds before.

He looked back at Micah.

"Okay, what."

Micah held up his new device in response. "Oberon's parting gift to me."

Ulises studied the black device.

"Well it looks a helluva lot better than our old ones," he finally said.

They both listened to the pure, unbroken silence around them.

"So," Ulises continued, "it lets you un-stop people, huh?" Ulises looked back up at the creature.

It was looking down at them, its mouth now closed, and grinning.

"Heh heh heh..."

It began to lower itself onto the sand before them, now seemingly able to move very efficiently.

"You truly are fools," it told them in its raspy whispery voice. "I inherited this power from the knowledge we gleaned from the data we collected on your little Doctor friend. I told you about it, when my weak origin body was on its deathbed. It is now a part of our new, superior genome. I can easily break your own primitive devices."

"Our?" Micah repeated.

They heard roaring.

Micah looked to its source. About half a klick away, opposite the door of the lab, a long, endless line of purple alpha-creatures stood on the sandy horizon. Some hulked larger than others. They all had their claws drawn. They all were screaming.

"We don't care about you at all!" the creature before them explained. "We followed you here because we knew you'd foolishly reactivate that imbecile's lab! Aha ha ha ha ha! We will absorb your putrid, puny race and reclaim our rightful place as the alpha species of this planet! And then we will endow our beauty to ALL dimensions! YOU WILL BECOME US! EMBRACE YOUR FATE! WE WILL CONSUME YOU ALL!"

It began hovering again. Micah and Ulises reared back and drew their rifles. Its maw began to glow and emit a soft flame.

The screaming legion of the creature's fellow species began to charge at them.

There was no escape.