DarkWing (Final Editing in Progress)

Chapter 22

"Hello sir. Can I help you?" I glided across the tile floor in an ebony trenchcoat, my wings tucked inside.  The Corrector Corps secretary obviously didn't recognize me. Perfect. From the front door, I walked straight past the secretary, directly toward the door Vaine had led me down the last time I was here. "Sir, is there something you-" I turned my head to look at her. She froze. My raven eyes burned into her, giving birth to the fear in her eyes. She, realizing I was a rogue experiment, quickly reached for the gun she had under her desk. I appeared behind her and snapped her neck. It was a shame. She didn't know I wasn't just a rogue experiment, I was THE rogue experiment. But that won't be anyone else's problem. Soon, everyone would know my name.

I walked to the door, and placed my hand on the handle. I tried to turn it, but it wouldn't move. I smirked at the idea of a locked door stopping me. I put my right palm in the center of the door, and with one shove, the door's hinges ripped out of the wall and it shot backwards, wrinkled like a sheet of paper. I walked in triumphantly, and saw an elevator down the hall directly ahead of me. The moment I got to the elevator, it opened and a scientist entranced in a folder he was holding slowly walked out. He heard me walking, and raised his head. His eyes came close to exploding in his head, and I grabbed him with one hand and threw him into the back of the elevator. I pushed him up against the wall, his papers littering the ground.

"Take me to Vaine," I said. My voice was deep and demonic, burning with anger and determination. It sent a chill down my own spine. The scientist was paralyzed, so I helped wake him up. I pulled him off the wall, then shoved him onto it again. "Vaine. Now." He frantically nodded, and I let him drop to the ground. He quickly swiped his ID card then hit a floor number. I smiled, then took his key card. "Now, get out." That order I didn't have to tell him twice.

To my surprise, the elevator went up instead of down. "So he doesn't live in the center of hell," I thought to myself. I smirked, but then refocused. Although I am a firm believer that there is never a bad time for a joke, there is an exception to every rule, and this was it. The elevator stopped at the 7th floor, the highest it could go. I braced myself for the coming impact. I had no idea what would be waiting behind those elevator doors. They sprung open, and I shielded my face.

And I waited. And waited. There was no gunfire, no screaming, no alarms, nothing. I peeked through my arms to see just that, nothing. I walked into the room, confused. It was pitch black even though I knew for a fact that the sun was still up, even though it was raining. This was different from usual darkness though. Usually, the lack of light had no effect on my vision, but this time. This time, I actually couldn't see. This time, I was reminded what it was like to be human.

I shuffled forward slowly, unaware, but cautious of my surroundings. The elevator, which was my only light source, eventually shut, leaving me in an abandoned abyss. I could hear a gentle hum. For once, though, it didn't grow. The hum stayed distant, quiet, undisturbing. For once, instead of treacherous, the sound was almost... Liberating. But still, I knew what that hum meant. The end.

I had made it about a fourth of the way into the room when I heard a voice, his voice.

"You're a little late, DarkWing." My fists clenched and my blood burned in the mere prescence of him.  Suddenly, I could hear a mechanical hum and the walls surrounding us, keeping us in darkness slowly lifted. They weren't walls, just mechanical blinds. We were surrounded by single story buildings, allowing us to look over the entire city from where we were. The sun shone through the dark clouds, and filled the room with enough luminance to bless me with sight. The entire room's floor was lined with small, obsidian tiles. I looked up, and the ceiling was also lined with obsidian tiles, but it also had innumberable square ceiling lights embedded into it. It was curious. If he could just turn on the lights, then why would he open up the windows instead. It made me uneasy. I looked across the room, and my eyes shot open. Vaine was sitting in a luxurious, black leather chair facing away from me. But that's not what shocked me. In a cage about half way in between me and Vaine, a little closer to me, sat a girl. She was bleeding, abused, dirty, scarred. Most importantly though, she had wings, the wings of a bat.