4. Something familiar
Monday, September 4th 2000, 8.56 p.m.
Akropolis Tower, Los Angeles
Aya drove as quickly as she could but the traffic jam, caused mostly by the situation in the Akropolis tower, was so bad it took her over twenty minutes to reach the destination. When she turned on the street, which led to the tower she saw a huge detonation, which shook slightly her car and made her ears ring uncomfortably. Aya look frantically ahead and saw a police helicopter, which had crashed down on the ground and destroyed police cars and other equipment. 'This can't be happening.', Aya thought, 'This cannot be caused by those creatures, not again in these proportions. This got to be something else..please let it be something else.' she prayed as she showed her badge to one police officer controlling the traffic in and out of the scene.
Aya drove forward and parked her car behind few police vehicles, it should be okay to leave her car there. She got out of her car and looked around, there were ambulances and police vehicles all around, only thing that was missing was the press. Aya sighed tiredly and felt really sad as she saw dead bodies of police officers and SWAT members lying on stretchers. It also proved there was something there, whether it was other people or creatures Aya would find out soon enough. She swept her hair out of her face and prepared to go in. She went to her car's trunk and looked in; there was her rifle and shotgun with plenty of bullets and the water just like Jodie had said. Aya decided to take her shotgun since her rifle seemed a bit too militaristic since she didn't know what she was facing. However, if they were creatures there, a shotgun would be handy in close combats and it had great stopping power when shot at.
Aya liked to customize her weapons so she had attached a trap on the shotgun and was able to carry it on her back and she had added extra parts to it so it was more powerful and could hold seven shotgun shells instead oh three. She took few boxes of 9 mm. and shotgun shells and put those in her leather jackets pockets where she could take them quickly if needed. Aya loaded her guns and was ready to go to the great unknown. She spotted two police officers standing near the entrance of the tower. She hurried to the one closer to her and introduced herself by showing him her FBI badge. The police officer was rather old, pretty fat and he was eating donuts and drinking coffee in the middle of the chaos.
''MIST?'' The man repeated and Aya tried not to loose her cool, didn't the man understand she was in a hurry?
''Oh, yes. MIST. You're with the FBI, you're cleared for entrance. Go ahead.'' He said, managing finally to remember.
''What's the situation on the roof?'' Aya asked, trying to find out the true nature of the situation before barging in.
''Situation? Well it's under control if you haven't noticed! We just lost the contact with SWAT who went in moment ago and now our helicopter came crashing down. The situation is great. The army better get here soon or we all will be screwed.'' He said almost mockingly.
Aya decided it was better to go and see for herself than talk with him so she thanked him briefly and hurried pass him to one of the entrances. The Akropolis tower was rather new building and it looked very modern, it was hard to believe something like this could happen there. Suddenly Aya felt a rush of hot air and looked to her left, where she saw the remains of the police helicopter still burning rather close to the entrance, shedding ominous orange glow to the darkening night. The sound of police and ambulance sirens filled the air and made her ears hurt. The whole are around the Akropolis tower had been isolated and there were police officers guarding all the entrances just like this one. Aya approached the officer and introduced herself once again. The young police officer looked rather shaken by all what happened but Aya had to ask what the situation was.
''SWAT went in almost ten minutes ago, but we lost contact with them.'' he said almost whispering as if fearing to be there.
''What about the civilians?'' Aya asked persistently.
''They all were evacuated earlier. They were screaming something about creatures.'' he said hesitantly.
''Ok.'' Aya said and walked past him into the building as he stepped aside.
''Be careful.'' she heard the young man saying after her.
Aya just smiled, she would be fine but she couldn't say the same for the young police officer after all this would hopefully be over.
Aya came to a dimly lit hallway, which led to the elevators. She took her gun out of its holster and was ready to shoot anything that even reminded those monsters. When she was sure there were no creatures there she relaxed her stance a bit and called the elevator down. The elevator doors opened with 'blink' sound and Aya carefully proceeded in, there were no signs of creatures and she pushed the rooftop button. The doors closed slowly and Aya waited patiently as the elevator started to move up. She pressed her back against the left wall of the elevator and waited patiently. If she turned her head to right she could see clearly the whole helicopter accident scene down on the street as well as the numerous police cars and officers. She also could see numerous corpses and the frantic attempt to try to suffocate the raging fire in the helicopter. Aya felt sorry for the ones who had lost their lives as well as their family, friends and other relatives, but this wasn't the time to let one's thoughts to wander so she suffocated her feelings for the moment and concentrated on her mission. She had to make sure there wouldn't be more victims due this incident there.
Finally the elevator came to stop at the rooftop and the elevator doors opened slowly. After waiting few seconds behind the doors and then charged in with her gun ready to fire. Quickly she made sure there wasn't anything or anyone in the elevator corridor. When Aya was sure the area was cleared she once again relaxed her stance but didn't put her gun back to its holster. The corridor was dim lit as all the lights seemed to be out. Only light came from the emergency exit signs and from outside from the streets and other buildings, that gave an eerie feeling to the place. Quickly Aya inspected the right side of the corridor more closely: There was nothing important there, just a few couches and some plastic plants. Everything was neat and tidy, just the way you would expect; Aya could even see her own reflection from the polished floor. She looked through the window, which was at the end of the corridor. She could see clearly, even without her powers, that there were police officers in the opposite building's windows watching over the situation at the Akropolis Tower.
There wasn't anything out of ordinary in the corridor so Aya proceeded to the left side, where the door leading to the main area was located. It was a double glass door but she couldn't see clearly trough it. However mere looking into that direction made her feel uncomfortably as if there was something there. The feeling reinforced when she walked closer to the doors. There was something odd about the situation; it was too quiet in the corridor, only sounds were coming from the police vehicles and ambulances down on the ground. It was if the silence was screaming in her ears, trying to warn that there was something ahead. Aya switched her gun to her left hand and grabbed the door handle with her right hand. Slowly she pulled the doors open. First thing she noticed was the smell on the air, it was the smell of blood. It took a moment to her brains to register what she saw and when she realised what it was she almost started to feel sick.
''Oh my god..'' Aya whispered as she gazed the rooftop.
Everywhere were bodies lying on the ground and top of each others, torn apart by something as dead as one can be. It had been the SWAT team they had sent in just moments ago. Blood covered the walls, the glass windows, the floors and the roman statue standing in the middle of the area. It looked macabre, one could see everything was shining new and polished in the parts which weren't covered with blood or shot full of holes by the SWAT team. Aya checked the bodies for life signs but none had survived. She counted that there was total of ten bodies in the upper area of the rooftop. 'How this can be possible?', Aya thought in disbelief, 'How there can be left so many NMC's to cause this kind of destruction?'. She shook her head and took out of her mobile phone to call her supervisor. She explained the situation and even the cold agent Baldwin seemed a bit shaken by what he heard.
Aya disconnected and put her mobile away having the oddest feeling of being watched in the same time. She turned to look to her right and an NMC hiding behind a pillar, she was startled a bit but quickly recovered and aimed her gun at the little bastard. Aya shoot a round but the creature dodged incredibly fast and only one bullet hit it. Aya was too far from the creature that the bullet would even had slowed it down. It took much more to kill those things. The creature seemed just angry and attacked Aya, running at her so fast Aya had no time to dodge so she fell on the floor the creature on top of her. This creature was very human like; it walked on two muscular legs, its skull shaped head was bald and its eyes were black with red iris, giving the creature almost scary appearance but Aya ignored it totally as she stopped the creature from scratching her with its human like arms which were like blades. Aya quickly kicked the creature of her, suffering a minor injure in the progress. Aya bend her own mitochondria to her will and started to great heat in her cells. When the creature was up again Aya released that heat and a flamethrower like fire surrounded the creature and burned it. Aya ignored its yelling and almost human likes shouts as she finished the job with her gun, firing few rounds at the creature which finally fell on the ground, dead as stone. Aya watched ad the creature dissolved into disgusting orange mass and disappeared in the air after having turned into smoke.
Aya swept her forehead and inspected the wound in her hand. It wasn't that deeply cut, she could easily heal it with her powers. Aya concentrated on the wound and forced her mitochondria to create more power to her cells to regenerate faster. Before her eyes the wound stopped bleeding, the edges of the wound closed up and finally the wound disappeared leaving no trace. The most ironic thing with her parasite powers was that she was able to hurt other people with her powers but she wasn't able to heal them. She felt dehydrated after the use of her powers and quickly she took out a small bottle of water from her leather jacket's pocket and took a sip. The water was the real fuel for her powers and she felt normal again after a while.
Without wasting anymore time Aya walked down the stairs leading to the mid section of the rooftop. There was one more body lying over the railing, which surrounded the area. Aya checked him but he was dead too. His skin was still a bit warm and Aya cursed out loud; if she had came few moments earlier than she had these people might still live. Then she heard a scream or more precisely a shout, which sounded like human. She looked to her right and could see a monster attacking one remaining SWAT member downstairs. Aya wasted no time as she ran down the stairs in the right side of the mid section ending up in the lowest section of the rooftop. She held her gun out while running and shot few rounds but the creature (similar to the one that had attacked her just a moments ago) ignored it as it was feasting on the injured SWAT member. Absolute anger filled Aya as she closed the distance between them and tore of the screaming creature off the young man lying on the ground. She threw the creature on the ground and pinned it still with her body and started to beat it with her fists, but she knew it wouldn't kill the thing. If she had done the same for a human he would be a pulp of blood and mass by now but not those creatures. Aya concentrated again on her mitochondria powers and manipulated the creature's shells in a way what made it weaker and unable to move. Then Aya took out her shotgun, put it against the creature's head and fired two times. The creature's head exploded and its blood covered Aya's clothes but she just ignored it and watched with satisfied smile as the creature dissolved and disappeared while she loaded her shotgun.
Aya sighed and hurried back to the wounded SWAT member.
''You're going to be okay. I'm going to get you out of here.'' Aya said to the young man with calming voice.
His torso was badly scratched and blood soaked his uniform and his left hand, as well as his eye, were missing. He breathed with difficulty and managed to say: ''Watch out, they're not what they seem..'' before he closed his eyes and breathed for the last time.
Aya hung her head down and fought back her emotions. There was nothing she could for him anymore so she closed his eyes and stood up. The man was in the end of the lower section's right side and there was a cafeteria to Aya's right. Tables and chairs in front of the cafe had been turned over and leftovers had flown all over the floors and walls. It looked like the creatures had had a party, but for their bad Aya had come to end it as soon as possible. Aya walked closer to the cafe and looked inside through the only window located there. It looked about the same inside the small cafe as it was outside, but there was one table, which hadn't been turned over and there was a red haired woman sitting at the table. The woman wore a sweater, short skirt and shoes. First Aya couldn't believe her eyes but after blinking few times she was sure that the woman really was there.
''How can she sit there in the middle of this as if nothing has happened..'' Aya muttered, something about the situation made her nervous but she had no choice than go to rescue the civilian.
Aya went for the cafeteria's door and tried to open it but found it locked. She had no time to look for the key, which probably didn't even exist so she pushed the doors adding her parasite powers and the door's lock broke down and the door flew open. The woman didn't seem to notice this and Aya thought she might be in shock. Carefully Aya put her weapon back to its holster and approached the woman.
''Ma'am, you're safe now. I'm with the FBI.'' Aya said in formal tone and laid a hand on the woman shoulder.
Something was wrong, the shoulder under Aya's hand felt too cold to be alive. The woman started to fall to her right and Aya drew her hand back startled by this. The woman ended up on the floor with loud thump but didn't move at all. Aya bend down to look at the woman and see if everything was okay, but she quickly took a step backwards as she saw the woman's hand twitch and start to transform. Aya gasped in surprise as the woman rose to her knees with compulsive movements while her skin started to change color and her fingers transform into something else than human hands. Then the muscles in the woman's legs grew bigger and changed the color into light brown, almost reddish as the veins could be seen easily underneath. But to Aya's horror that wasn't even near the end. Next Aya could hear as the womans bones in her back cracked and took a new form, growing bigger and more beast like. The woman's mouth enlarged as the skin in her cheeks broke and her teeth grew bigger and sharper. All the woman's red hair fell on the floor as her head and face lost the human look and became more skull like. Her eyes were deeper in the skull and the color of her blue iris turned into red as her eyes turned otherwise black. All the time through the transformation the woman was panting in pain as cold sweat covered her skin. The creature looked a lot like the creatures Aya had countered before but this one was much bigger, it stood much taller than Aya.
Aya looked the creature a bit nervous but she would never escape a battle if it wasn't dead or life matter. Finally the painfully looking transformation seemed to be over and the creature charged. Aya didn't waste any time as she took out her shotgun and shot the creature, which flew backwards and fell on the ground. Aya hesitated a moment, she had never before seen someone turning into creature that way. She knew it was an NMC but she still hesitated and that hesitation almost cost her life as the creature got up and bit Aya on her right hand. Cursing Aya tried to free her hand but in vain. She quickly created heat in her cells and tried to flame the creature. The creature yelled in pain and let go of Aya's hand. Quickly Aya grabbed a chair closest to her with her left hand and hit the creature with it, which had no effect at all on the creature. Painfully Aya raised the shotgun and shot the approaching creature seven times. She couldn't reload with her injured hand so she found herself flying through the air as the creature hit her. Aya's back hit the wall and she felt dizzy. The creature approached her again but Aya quickly took out her handgun from its holster and shot the creature at its eye. The creature howled and fell backwards on the ground, seeming to be dead. Aya sighed in relief and cautiously stood up.
The creature didn't dissolve and it worried Aya a bit but she hadn't met that kind of creature before so she didn't know whether or not it should have.
Luckily Aya's back hadn't got hurt from the hard hit and Aya was able to move as easily as before. She healed the wound in her hand before she inspected the creature with her gun ready in her hands. It didn't move at all nor it didn't breath. It looked much like those other creatures she had countered earlier, it just was bigger than an average NMC. When Aya was ready to leave the creature be, she saw something behind the creature ear. Aya bent down and looked closer. It seemed like there was some kind of metal implant behind the creature's ear. Aya had never seen anything like that on the creatures before, so out of curiosity she took it off. It was stuck tightly but Aya drew it out with force. There were pieces of the creatures flesh hanging around it but luckily Aya had brought few small plastic bags with her for the possible evident so there was no need to dirty her leather jacket's pockets. Satisfied Aya stood up and readied herself to leave.
To be continued...
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