Corruption

Bloody reunion

Anora was practicing her hand to hand fighting on the training dummy in the training room of the EED base in Florida when Samuel found her. She sighed, annoyed at being interrupted from training. "What is it?" She asked. "Sorry to bother you," Samuel started. "Miranda's not getting any weaker," she told him, folding her arms as she waited for him to spit out whatever he came in there to say. "I just felt like maybe.. I don't know.. you have a lot of pent up anger about everything that happened.. maybe you.." "I'll be fine once I kill Miranda," she interrupted him. "I just wanted to try to help," Samuel said. "If you wanna help, find Miranda and let me send her to hell." What were these people not getting about this? Miranda was clearly at least a little bit stronger than them, and she hadn't even really fought back at the airport. She had a suspicion that maybe she was just feeling the situation out for Nelson, considering how buddy-buddy they'd became. Anora felt herself frown in disgust. Yet another reason to hate Miranda, added on to her list.
         Samuel shrugged. "Okay. Well helping that Martian.. Uh, Fred. That's gonna be our best hope of finding Miranda out somewhere in the Universe." "What does it even want?" Anora asked. "Fred should be telling Jasmine a list of stuff he needs to repair his transmitter thing so he can call his friends to help us." "Well let's hurry the fuck up," she sighed, reluctantly conceding that this was probably the smartest course of action, despite how blood lusted she was to kill Miranda. "Maybe you could stand to be a little nicer?" He asked her hopefully. She ignored him and headed back to talk to that Martian. Every wasted second Miranda could be getting light years farther away from her. She found the Martian in the room, now untied, with Jasmine chatting next to it. She sighed, preferring to just kill the thing, but she restrained herself. "They're.. calling you.. Fred?" Anora asked as she walked into the room.
"Yes," he replied. "I assume you're wanting that list." He motioned for Jasmine to hand it to her. "Oh, thanks," she said, looking at what the alien needed. It was only four things. "I'll be back as soon as possible," She replied. "Also, can I ask you a question? You.. seemed to know allot about Miranda. The Urzuhg? What can you tell me about her?" "I know a little, tho that's probably more than you," Fred said, thinking. "Why the curiosity? Aren't you going to kill her?" "I want to see if there's anything I can use against her." "Hmm." The Martian shrugged. "Okay. Of course as you know, she is an Urzuhg, they're all biologically immortal. Which means.." "They won't die unless they're killed," Anora cut in. "Please don't waste any time explaining definitions. I don't want to miss my chance at finding her." "Alright," Fred continued, "Well our lifespans are only a little bit longer than yours, just over a hundred years on average. Problem is that we have evidence which leads us to believe she's closer to seven hundred years or more." "Seven hundred??" Jasmine gaped. "Or more," Fred said, "She's the daughter of their Military commander, so she obviously has some very extreme training. But a few things don't add up." "Like what?" Anora asked, hoping to find some glimmer of weakness. "We've been tracking their movements since before I existed," Fred explained, "And managed to link various global extinctions and the fall of many civilizations across a plethora of solar systems to her. They use her as a spy since no one is used to seeing a "human" so far out in space, and it makes them let their guard down. She's considered one of the best at espionage. That's definitely the human side coming out of her, Urzuhg could never.. any way. But some earlier reports, something like a few centuries ago, sort of indicated that she may have been doing allot more positive things than negative. This suggests that something happened that made her stop doing positive things, and start doing destructive things. Normally it requires something really negative to have happened to her, to cause that kind of change in behavior." "And if I figure out what that is.. maybe I can use it against her," Anora concluded. "But how?" "Go get those things on the list," Fred said. "I think I have an idea that may help us."
*********
Anora gathered the required materials. It wasn't anything like what she expected, though she also imagined if it needed other things the EED base probably had it there anyway. After giving him the things he needed, Fred was able to complete his transmitter in just an hour or two. Jasmine, Henry, and Cherry watched intently, extremely interested in seeing a Martian in action. "There we go," Fred said. Anora, who hadn't really been paying attention since she was practicing reloading her sniper as quickly as possible, looked up to see the finished result. The Martian was standing holding a holographic square, which was hovering over his hand. "Need to use this outside, in the position I want them to pick me up at." "I'll take you there ASAP." Anora said. Fred nodded. "As humans say, I would like to get the fuck out of here." Jasmine clapped excitedly. "You used it right!" She said. "Of course I did," Fred said with a smirk. "Let's go?" Anora, Jasmine, Fred, and of course Samuel escorted him to wherever he wanted to use this device. They stood at one of the now abandoned beaches since the disease was discovered to originate from the water. It was cloudy and windy, so she imagined they needed to hurry in case of rain, which was now poisonous. "Thank you humans," Fred said. "Of course we will make a cure in exchange for this."
"You mean, you would have made a cure for this," a familiar voice said from behind them. They all spun around quickly. Much to their disbelief, Miranda and Nelson stood behind them, arms crossed. It was Miranda who'd spoken. Anora felt a deep hatred overflowing in her chest at the sight of Miranda, especially since she liked taking Nelson along with her everywhere. It's like she was rubbing it in her face or something. "I see you fell into our trap," Nelson said, his tone of voice monotonous. Anora hates how much they had mutated him. He stood there beside Miranda, his dreads still tied back into a ponytail, the two loose dreads hanging in front of his face blowing in the wind. His eyes were that frightening shade of bright green, but it was different from last time. When she last saw those eyes they had cracked at the top, but now they had healed back to the full iris. "Wow, I'm impressed," Fred said condescendingly, "The Urzuhg finally learned how to set traps." So that's what happened to him, why he was wondering around like that, Anora thought. Okay focus. This is what you trained for. Do not mess up. DO NOT MESS UP!
"Why is it that you guys are always in the way?" Nelson asked casually, smirking. "It's almost like you didn't take the hint when we left you for dead earlier." "Humans aren't the smartest creatures," Miranda shrugged. "Any ways, we've been down this road before," She continued. "Just give us the Martian." "Blast em, Fred!" Jasmine whispered to the Martian. "You know they can still hear you even if you whisper," Fred told her. "Fred's right," Miranda said with an amused grin. Anora scowled. "Enough fucking talking already!" Anora burst out. "I'm so sick of this! You're not getting away with shit, Miranda!!" Miranda merely furrowed her brows. "Yeah Fred's with us!" Jasmine chimed in. Anora already had her sniper trained on Miranda. "Nelson.." Samuel started. "Come on man don't do this.." "Then move out of the way," Nelson replied nonchalantly. Anora grit her teeth as the anger became too much for her to contain anymore. On top of all of this, she was making Nelson fight his own friends? She, Samuel, and Jasmine all open fired on Miranda. None of the bullets penetrated the extraterrestrial force field. "A little bit biased to only aim your guns at one of us, isn't it?" Nelson's voice said from behind them. Anora gulped. She whipped around as fast she could, and aimed her sniper for a non vital part of Nelson's body. She angled it so it looked like she was shooting at his lower chest, but she really aimed for his legs. She fired twice. He obviously thought she was aiming for his chest, so when the bullets slammed into the force field around his legs, it surprised him enough to make him stumble over. He dropped Nightmare. The Martian's black eyes widened. "The key!" Fred then pointed his finger at Nelson, and all of sudden he went flying backwards. "Woah you can use the force!!" Jasmine gaped excitedly. "What?" The Martian asked, "What force? I just used my brain to.." "To get your self caught," Miranda growled, now behind them. "Grab the key!" Fred shouted. Samuel immediately tried to tackle Miranda to stop her from grabbing it, but she cartwheeled over him and Superman punched Jasmine, knocking her a couple of feet back into the beach. Anora immediately seized the opening and, with a pocket knife, sprinted and tackled Miranda before she even landed on the ground from Superman punching Jasmine.
She tried to stab Miranda directly in the face but the force field was in the way. It looked like she was struggling to poke through some air. She glared at Miranda with pure hatred. She tried as best she could to force the knife into the force field to stab her in the face but Miranda push kicked her off of her up into the air. She felt like it was ten seconds before she finally fell back down and splashed into the ocean. She swam back up as fast as she could, swimming back to shore. The Martian had thrown Miranda back with its mind, but it seemed to take allot out of him to do that. Fred was breathing heavily now, and his large grey cranium had a faint red glow emitting from it. She swam back and immediately went to defend Fred. "These mutations are worse than I thought," Fred said, "But at least I have the Key now. The fools were using it as a weapon!" "You mean like this?" Nelson asked, suddenly popping up in front of them. Anora frowned. She didn't understand how the Urzuhg could move around so fast. She literally couldn't even see them moving. "What..?" Fred gasped, struggling to hold the Nightmare Key.
"It's moving on its own.." The Martian said through gritted teeth. "Is it now?" Nelson asked, holding his hand out towards the blade. It suddenly lifted up into the air, taking Fred the Martian with it. Eventually Fred had to let go before he went too high in the air. The blade flew back to Nelson's hand. "Nelson stop!" Anora yelled. She pulled out her pocket knife, standing between him and Fred. Samuel and Jasmine were getting beat up by Miranda somewhere behind them. Nelson frowned intensely. He allowed Nightmare to hover in the air beside him, aimed at Anora, while he crossed his arms and sighed. He didn't speak, rather only frowning at the two of them. His green eyes were glowing bright enough that she could see the green light reflecting off of her knife. "Just give me that alien." Nelson's words were devoid of all emotion. "You know that can't happen," Anora told him. "What have the Urzuhg done to the key??" Fred asked angrily. "Why are you able to control it with your mind, but I cannot?" "Yeah, cause I'm gonna just tell you that information," Nelson retorted sarcastically. "Enough. I'm taking it." Anora readied herself nervously. She wasn't sure she could even last very long against Nelson, and even if she could kill him, she didn't think she had the heart to. Miranda had him brainwashed somehow, she believed. So she didn't blame him. "Human we need to take that key!" Fred told her. "Here I can probably help one more time." The Martian pointed its finger at Nelson, and suddenly Nelson's body just up and flew towards them. He cursed irritably. Fred groaned painfully. "At the speed he's flying towards us, you may be able to penetrate the force field with a strong enough stab from that knife." Anora gulped. She did not want to kill Nelson. Maybe if I just aim for a non vital spot... she tried to quickly reassure herself. She aimed the point of her knife towards his stomach and reluctantly stabbed at him as he was pulled toward them at a decent speed.
It looked like the air around his stomach bended as the knife tried to penetrate the force field. Apparently she was too reluctant. For a moment, they made eye contact before he knocked her over with the speed at which the Martian has telekinetically thrown him. He looked sort of disappointed, sad even. Different from what kind of demeanor he presented earlier. They tumbled backwards through the sand, but Anora managed to land on her feet due to all of her practicing. She anticipated getting knocked back. Nelson was already on his feet, holding his stomach. She frowned. Had she actually broke through and stabbed him? Was he okay?
Miranda immediately appeared beside him, checking on him. Anora grit her teeth angrily. She scanned the beach, and located her sniper. Something clicked in her head. She had to kill Miranda. She couldn't let herself get distracted. Maybe that was the only way to snap Nelson out of this. She made it to her sniper. Nelson and Miranda were already picking up a weakened Fred. Samuel and Jasmine were unconscious. She noted that using those telekinetic powers definitely weakened Martians. She trained her sniper on Miranda's head, and fired. It bounced off the force field around her, though the force did make her stumble a little. Miranda turned irritably to her. As soon as she turned, another bullet smacked into her force field. With out it, it would have gone in between her eyes. Anora cursed angrily at the force field. Miranda instantly closed the gap between them, now standing in front of Anora. They glared at each other for a heated moment. She was too close for her to use her sniper now. Fuck this I'm not going down like this!!! Anora shouted internally. She slammed her sniper down and kicked up at the sand, so that it would block Miranda's vision. She also hoped the sand would go up her nose to interrupt her being able to smell where she was at for a moment. As she kicked the sand up, she also purposely fell to her back, just in case she tried punching through the sand. Of course Miranda did try to punch through the sand, and Anora combat rolled behind her, taking her sniper with her. She hopped up to her feet, immediately aiming her sniper at her. Miranda also quickly turned around, knocking the sniper out of her hand milliseconds before she could shoot it. With Anora's other hand she used her pocket knife to jab it full force at the side of her head. The force field only bended a little bit, before Miranda snap kicked her in the side with enough force to send her splashing into the ocean beside them. Luckily it wasn't too deep and a disoriented Anora was able to shakily stand to her feet, holding on to her cracked ribs. But she was determined. She didn't care if she died, she just needed to make sure Miranda died. All she needed was one clean shot. She stumbled with the last of her strength to her sniper rifle, where it lay on the beach. Nelson and Miranda were about to leave with Fred when they noticed a laser beam suddenly shoot out of thin air and almost vaporized Nelson, who only just barely managed to avoid a direct hit. In the air, another flying saucer appeared, where it must have been camouflaged. It looked different from what the Urzuhg used. It was bright silver, and it actually had a see through dome at the top of it where you could see little Martians standing piloting it. Anora made it to her sniper rifle and did her best with her aiming despite her ribs hurting. It's gonna take more than some fucked up ribs to keep me from killing you, bitch, Anora thought hatefully. She held her breath and took aim. I'm sorry, Nelson..
She managed to lay down on her chest, aim and fire her sniper at his arms, since he was holding Fred. She knew it likely wouldn't break through the force field, but she didn't want him to try to run off with Fred. She also wanted the other Martians to know she was their ally. It worked better than she thought. His force field actually broke and he dropped Fred. She took another painful deep breath and prepared to use her last resort, considering she didn't think she could survive another assault from them. She had modified her sniper rifle to shoot directly from the magazine at the press of a button, to bypass having to reload every four shots. She tensed up. I got 17 bullets I can shoot at her right now. Come the fuck on!!
She aimed at Miranda and began firing. The first two bullets slammed into her force field easily because she was distracted by Nelson getting hit in the arms. She turned angrily at Anora, her eyes glowing an intense green. She fired another shot but Miranda ducked and charged her. DAMN!! Anora grimaced, as Miranda was just too inhumanely fast for Anora's eyes to keep up and shoot. Just as Miranda was about to stomp her face into the sand, she was knocked back telekinetically. Five Martians had landed behind her. "Good job human," One of the Martians congratulated her. "I don't know why you're helping us, but thank you." "I need help killing that red haired one," Anora said, struggling to breathe as it felt like her ribs were poking her lungs every time she took a breath. "I've been hunting her for months." "She looks damaged," One of the other Martians noted. "Heal her up real quick." One Martian stayed behind and the other four rushed in, aimed glowing red machine gun looking things at Miranda and Nelson and open firing on them, spraying tiny glowing red bullets at them. "S-She has a force field," Anora managed to say, as the Martian eyed her curiously. It put a hand against her broke rib, which began to glow a dim red color. "Don't worry, those are bullets made specifically to break through their shields," The Martian said. "If they don't move they're going to die." By the time it finished speaking, her ribs were healed. It helped her up and handed her her sniper rifle. "Looks like this might be your chance to finish your hunt, my human friend." Miranda and Nelson had been forced to move back, Nelson in particular because Anora had already (accidentally) broke through his force field. He was actively dodging bullets as best he could Miranda had this metal staff with blades on either side deflecting bullets away. Anora could see that her force field was down, as she had a few wounds were bullets had grazed her. They had stopped firing because Miranda had managed to deflect some bullets back at them, and a few had been hit. They healed each other before speaking to Miranda and Nelson. "Surrender or die," A Martian said coldly. "This will be the last sentence you will ever hear if you don't immediately surrender. We already have our laser beam aimed at you from our ship. Anora walked up beside the Martian. Nelson had quite a few bruises and open wounds from the Martians. "Hey that one over there," Anora pointed at Nelson, "He's not Urzuhg, they just abducted him and injected shit in him.." "You know that one?" The Martian asked. "Yeah," Anora said. "Just wanna detain him. But that red headed bitch should just die." "Tell you what, we kill the redheaded one, and take him in for questioning and information. Then we return him to you?" Anora immediately agreed. As long as Miranda didn't have him. And she saved their friend 'Fred' so hopefully they would hold up their end of the deal. "You've been hunting her for months," Fred said, finally able to stand on his own again. "Why don't you take the final shot?" Anora couldn't help but smile. This was finally it. "Finally," she sighed successfully, aiming her sniper at her. Miranda grimaced. Nelson said something they couldn't hear to Miranda. She aimed her rifle for a shot directly in the middle of her forehead. It barely took one second to aim. She had practiced aiming and shooting her so many times, she had taped pictures of Miranda to her dummy shot it in the head multiple times, she'd dreamt of it multiple times. She was prepared for everything.
She fired her first shot. Miranda dodged it like she expected her to. 14 more shots. For a moment, Anora fired her sniper at her, with impeccable aim, but Miranda was able to dodge the next 11 bullets. Nelson grit his teeth. Anora knew just was to do. She'd planned on not being able to land a shot on her. So it was time for her to do something risky. She pulled it off once by accident, but it may be necessary now to overcome Miranda's speed. She just needed metal for a bullet to bounce off of. She shot two bullets as fast as she could, aiming for Miranda's staff, which she held defensively in front of her. The first bullet ricocheted off of her metal staff, and the second bullet hit the first one, doubling its speed, and redirecting it. Now one was going for her head and the other was going for her chest. Judging by her previous movements, I may be able to corner her with this.. Anora thought, in her zone. Miranda barely dodged the bullet aimed at her head, and the second one went straight through her collar bone, exiting out from Miranda's back. Nelson's eyes widened with surprise. What did you expect from the world's best sniper? Anora thought proudly. "Excellent," Fred said with a smile. Now that Miranda was caught off guard, she was as good as dead. Anora fired the final shot. To her disbelief, Nelson leaped up in front of Miranda and took the bullet for her. It went right through his shoulder but it redirected it enough to where it didn't hit Miranda. Anora gaped.
Miranda sat up, clutching to her collar bone. "Why???" Miranda shouted. "It was just my shoulder.." Nelson said painfully. "I was afraid I might miss with Nightmare. So I panicked and did this." Anora threw her sniper on the ground. She screamed in exasperation. "Must be infuriating having guns that run out of ammo at times like this," Fred said thoughtfully. "Don't worry, once we disable her you can finish her off. Since you helped me." The other Martians agreed, aiming their weapons at Miranda and Nelson. Just as the opened fired, Nelson once again stood in front of Miranda. This time Nightmare ready, blocking all the shots he could. He wasn't good enough to block rapid fire from five Martian machine guns. He was slowly being overwhelmed. Just then, a beam of light smashed into the beach, vibrating the Earth it seemed to the extent of the sand literally hovering in the air with the beam was smashing into the sand. When it cleared, that four armed four eyed alien that had abducted Nelson stood there, all four arms crossed. "Oh shit it's the Commander!" Fred gasped. "Mari!"
Mari's eyes seemed to glow a brighter green than normal. "What's up, you Martian bitches?" He said nonchalantly. "I'll be taking one of you now. Doesn't matter which one."