Story Notes:
Story Notes (PLEASE READ!)- Hey all: it's TehZombieWaster again with even more tales from the Biohazard universe. With a relatively successful run with last year's â��Biohazard: The City of the Damnedâ�a33; and a slightly disappointing turnout for this Halloween's â��Malevolence,â�a33; I'm hoping to gain a decent review base with the latest installment in the Biohazard series.Despite previous entries being action-oriented, â��Fracturedâ�a33; will focus more on character drama. Don't kid yourself, though: this is Biohazard, and that means that there's going to be plenty of bone-crunching mayhem for my nonexistent fans in the latter half of the story.Also, if you want to stop reading because you're confused, please continue. Not everything will be revealed to you at once, and many of your questions will be answered along the way. I'd almost compare the story to a puzzle; you're going to be fed bits and pieces along the way, and not everything's going to be clear until the story is almost over.In addition to that, MetalChick (thanks for pre-reading!) noted that the first segment lacked a certain â��soulâ�a33; to the writing; this is completely intentional. It's supposed to represent Aegis' lack of one, so I just wanted to point that out.And please don't read and leave. I'm delighted with reviews, (especially the in-depth ones) and I always respond at some point in time. I'm begging you; at this point, I'm getting desperate D:Thanks for stopping by!Sincerely,~TehZombieWaster
Episode 1: Fractured
"Remorse is the pain of sin." ~Theodore Parker
A dull yellow light lit the room, the figures within obscured by a haze of smoke. Five bodies dressed in navy blue uniforms sat motionless around a table, transfixed by the game of poker that was at hand. Very serious business.
Almost completely concealed within the dense fog, Aegis Breckin's scarlet eyes traced the movements of the human male that was seated across from her, almost as if she were mentally trying to determine something about the man. Bringing a fat cigar to her maw, the Ononokusu took a deep inhalation and let the toxic smoke settle into her gums. The warm feeling had an immensely calming effect over her. Before taking another hit of tobacco, the pokemon took hold of a shotglass that rested beside her arm and downed the contents in one gulp, shuddering in pleasure as the liquid fire travelled down her throat.
Seated two seats to the left of Aegis, a smile slowly crept upon the face of a Tyranitar as he plucked something from the sleeve of his uniform and added it to his hand of cards.
"What'cha got there, Landon?" Her deep yet feminine voice asked, breaking the silence. Although the effect was probably intentional, the sound of Aegis' words always carried a sultry, patronizing ring to them.
With a smug expression plastering his face, the Tyranitar let five cards fall to the table, coming to rest beside a sizable pile of money. "Eh, nothing much, boss. Just a royal flush," he said, pointing to the fallen paper cutouts.
Aegis immediately stood from her chair to inspect his claim; sure enough, lying in front of him was an ace-high flush, the highest ranking poker hand.
"Well, good for you, Landon," Aegis said in a tone of mock happiness. Don't think you can fool me, you son of a bitch.
Reveling in his success, the male pokemon nodded in recognition of his superior's congratulations. What he didn't notice was her triple-clawed paw hover down to the holstered pistol that was secured on her leg.
Her gun now unholstered, her action was obscured by the tobacco fog. However, she was still able to see that stupid, self-gratifying grin spread over the pokemon's ugly mug: it was a look that she had only seen once before, and she hated it more than anything else in the world. Despite the pokemon's underhanded tactics and the fact that he was probably no different than any other asshole out there, he still had a family somewhere. A mother who loved him, a father who would probably take him out fishing on weekends. Siblings that annoyed him at times, but cherished his company nonetheless. Grandparents who would buy him expensive gifts over the holidays because they thought he deserved the best.
Aegis almost felt herself split into two beings as she could feel her claw tighten around the textured trigger. There was the Aegis she was now: a battle-hardened heartless bitch if there ever was one. The separate entity was something she couldn't comprehend, someone compassionate and caring, someone who loved to laugh. Someone who died.
The Tyranitar wasn't in the chair anymore. In his place was an Ononokusu that looked exactly like herself, but she was much younger looking and dressed in a ragged, torn tee-shirt that was transparent with moisture. She wasn't wearing any pants, and was scantily covered in a pair of mud-stained panties.
Aegis blinked, and the other Ononokusu disappeared. The male pokemon was back again and in that instant, the far off feeling of compassion vanished. It didn't only vanish, but it died hard.
Before any of the other players in the room could register what was happening, the dull pop of Aegis' silenced handgun filled the stagnant air.
The Tyranitar's eyes opened wide in shock as he went rigid, a steady trickle of blood streaming from a finely-punched hole in his forehead. Seconds after, he slumped over in his chair, the grapefruit-sized exit wound in the back of his head becoming visible to all in the room.
With the waning feeling of emotion now gone completely, the female Ononokusu yawned and flattened her uniform over her chest, feeling the gentle rise of the firm, muscle packed flesh beneath the fabric. Immediately after the subtle action, she let her arms slacken as she walked over to the corpse and plucked a number of cards out from within the dead pokemon's shirt sleeve, showing them to the three other players with an angry fire burning in her eyes. All that mattered now was that she had killed a cheating bastard, not the pokemon who had a family that loved him, a mother and father who spent years raising him, siblings whom he had helped with homework, and grandparents who thought he deserved the very best. The human across from her nervously shifted in his chair while the other two remained still.
"This, kids," Aegis said, pointing to the cards, "is why you don't piss your boss off... And get him the hell out of here." Consequences there would be for killing a grunt, but none too severe due to her role as sub-captain of Squad 23 and her superiors' unanimous disliking of the undisciplined members of the base. Regarding the body with a look of irritation, she sighed inwardly without remorse. Shit, more paperwork for me.
Nodding towards her subordinates while re-holstering her gun, the Ononokusu took five purposeful strides towards a mahogany door and left the room without another word. Waiting outside the doorway was a long hallway that stretched for a fourth of a mile in both directions, the walls adorned with various military medals and documents preserved behind glass paneling. Aegis smiled.
After three years of active service on the front lines of the Sinnoh-Isshu war, she has sold her soul to the Sinnoh Black Operations Squad after they offered her a handsome sum of money for her services. It was well-deserved too, since she had taken a bullet to the chest and suffered multiple shrapnel wounds from Sinnoh's soldiers. Ironic that she was now working for them, but it didn't matter: whoever paid her the most would gain her loyalty, at least until someone else offered more.
It wasn't long before she reached her lodgings because of her brisk pace. Taking one last puff of smoke from the cigar that had now become reduced to a stub, she dug into her pocket and removed her key; sliding it into the lock, Aegis twisted the doorknob and slipped inside. With the flick of a switch, light flooded the small single-room residence that she had come to call home during the past year and a half. She wasn't exactly materialistic, which was clearly illustrated by the single bed that was propped up against the corner of the white-painted room. A desk sat against the wall with a television placed atop of it, but like the bed, there wasn't a trace of any personal touches. The only other feature inside the space was a small trash bin that was filled with crumpled-up papers, products of trashed chapters from her planned war memoir. She was a lousy author, anyway.
Looking at the cigar stub with a disdainful look on her face, Aegis discarded the saliva dampened item into the disposal bin and flopped down onto her bed, not bothering to remove the gun secured to her leg. Her instincts told her that it was late and as she took a glance at her military-issued wristwatch, her suspicions were confirmed; the device read 22:12, exactly twelve minutes after ten.
Better get to sleep soon, she thought, casting an indignant expression at her room's light that still lit the room. She really didn't want to get up from her comfortable position on the mattress; looks like the lights would be staying on tonight.
Reaching underneath her mattress with a taloned hand, Aegis pulled a remote control free from the confines of the bottommost fabric. Lazily pressing the 'Power' button on the device, she brought the television to life with a flicker of static and a short buzzing protest from the aging piece of hardware. As the distorted image on the screen came into focus, a human reporter was seen against the backdrop of nighttime. Behind her, a car lay upturned, its windows smashed and the underside rendered a blazing wreck that cast an orange glow upon what looked to be a city avenue.
"-less acts of violence and terror persist in Eterna City, with the level of disorder reaching its peak this evening," the news anchor continued from whatever she had been saying before. It was a human in a red suit, her short blond hair made messy and disheveled from the wind that tore at her loose flaps of clothing. "Although criminal acts and appalling violence have taken place, including the savage murder of four-year-old Betsy Thomas, the proper Pokemon Rescue Organization authorities have been unable to pinpoint any perpetrators behind the shocking misconduct."
The screen suddenly cut to a female Raichu dressed in the unmistakable Pokemon Rescue Organization (or PRO) uniform; her thinly drawn lips indicated that she was anything but pleased. Behind her, a human male dressed in similar attire was applying caution tape around a crimson splatter mark that stretched over the sidewalk.
"What happened tonight was absolutely unacceptable, and I'm afraid we've got no leads," the Raichu admitted, facing the unseen interviewer on the left side of the screen. A blue bar materialized across the bottom of the screen reading, 'PRO Alpha Team Captain Colleen Entragian' in white lettering. "With the evidence we've gathered so far, I'm pretty sure that we're dealing with some sort of some feral pokemon attack- earlier this evening I saw something crawling on the side of the municipal building. The thing was gone before I even got a proper look at it."
Stretching contentedly in her bed, Aegis yawned. Feral pokemon attacks were fairly common in modern day life: pokemon who had not adapted to human society retained their feral mindlessness, and would often attack if someone got into their territory. At least most of them could still harness their attacks, since generations of breeding within current civilization resulted in the loss of all natural abilities for most domesticated pokemon, including Aegis herself. Can't even muster a damned puff of a Dragon Pulse.
Her attention drawn back to the television, she listened as the Raichu said, "I'd seriously advise that all of Eterna City's residents stay inside during the night; we'll be continuing our investigation throughout the evening, and we will be sure to inform you if there's anything else that needs to be covered."
As the camera jarringly cut back to the human woman in the red suit, Aegis pressed the 'off' switch on the remote control: such overblown drivel bored her. Harnessing the willpower to get up in her terribly sleepy state, she leaned over the side of her bed and pulled some spare clothes out from beneath the mattress' frame. It took an extra couple of seconds for her claws to locate a towel; it had been quite a while since she had taken her last shower.
---
The bathhouse in the Snowpoint Black Operations Base was a luxury that most military establishments couldn't afford: it was a room that was plastered in ceramic tiling, probably around forty-by-forty feet. Scattered haphazardly around the space was an assortment of plastic benches that were moreso designed to hold dirty clothes and bath accessories, not the full weight of a pokemon.
Entering the room through a corridor that led to the changing area, Aegis blinked through the haze of steam to find the room vacant, a rare occurrence indeed. With her draconic claws making clack clack noises as she walked through the mist, the Ononokusu approached a showerhead that jutted from the wall and pulled her skin-tight nylon shirt over her head, careful not to rip it on the scythe-like protrusions that sprouted from her upper jaw. Her undergarments quickly following, Aegis twisted the hot water handle underneath the metallic nozzle. She let out a sigh of relief as she felt the hot water envelop her body, seeping into the dirty spaces between her armor plating and washing a week's worth of grit away. With extensive physical conditioning exercises every day going hand-in-hand with tactical field training, there wasn't much time to worry about hygiene.
She exhaled and leaned back, letting her hot breath slowly pass through her lips. The Ononokusu closed her eyes and...
...
It was getting dark outside. The distinct smell of smoke drifted into Aegis' nostrils while she walked down the abandoned city sidestreet, gazing at the enormous skyscrapers that stood against the drab, gloomy sky. She blinked, a fat raindrop landing straight on her eye; seconds later, hundreds, and then thousands of water beads rained from the clouds above. A typical day in Hiun City.
Within seconds, her loose-fitting tee shirt and her grey pants were soaked through. Raising an arm to shield her eyes from the driving rain, she squinted through her blurred vision to see a human riding swiftly down the street on a red bicycle. The rumble of an engine signaled the arrival of a delivery truck that swept past her and continued down the street, the sound persisting even after the vehicle rounded a corner.
Just a couple more minutes, she thought to herself hopefully, not wanting to miss her weekly sitcom.
Just as she was about to make a turn into a narrow alleyway that served as a shortcut to her apartment building, she detected a sweet aroma, leading her to glance at the bakery that sat across the street. She knew the owner well: after all, she did purchase breakfast there every morning before heading off to her boring office job. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to pick up tomorrow's morning meal ahead of time... Whatever Karin was making, it sure smelled good.
Within the building, a small-statured human female looked up from her cash register to see to soaked form of a youthful Aegis Brekin, a smile that didn't exist anymore spread across the pokemon's face. The creature's shirt was nearly completely transparent from the rain, exposing the black flesh of her chest and the golden plating that covered the rest of the Ononokusu's body.
" 'Afternoon, Karin," Aegis said in greeting, her words in perfectly spoken English. Unlike many pokemon, her voice didn't carry the slightest trace of an accent.
"Hey there, Aegis," Karin replied, returning her bright demeanor. The Ononokusu was always cheerful it seemed, despite situations that would normally ruin a person's day; getting caught in the rain would certainly rank high on that list. "Ended up getting stuck in the rain, huh?"
Eying some pastries behind a display window, the pokemon laughed, trying not to get too much water on the floor of the empty bakery. "Yeah, but it never really bothered me, though. Kind of like taking a cold shower..."
...
Back in the shower room, Aegis' eyes snapped open so quickly that it felt like her eyeballs were in danger of popping from their sockets. Rendered invisible by the water that ran over her body, she could feel hot tears seeping from her eyes as her breaths came in shuddering gasps of fright, possibly even revulsion.
"Don't you dare go back again," the Ononokusu whispered to herself in a trembling voice. "Don't you fucking dare..."
Aegis brought a claw to her face and ran it down the side of her cheek; she felt older, oh so much older. Centuries older from the day six years ago when her life quite literally got fucked. Get a hold on yourself, Breckin, you freakin' pussy. What the heck would one of those grunts think of you if they saw you now? Although her thoughts didn't help much, they did help her can her composure. To a certain degree, at least.
Reaching out, she twisted the handle beneath the showerhead, cutting off the flow of water. The pokemon stood in the empty room for several seconds as if her mind had suddenly gone blank, but she suddenly let herself slump against the wall and slide into a sitting position on the floor. Still completely naked, Aegis drew her knees upwards, cradling her head in her claws.
She thought back to the Tyranitar, who was probably now lying in the coroner's office with the remains of his brain dripping out onto whatever they had placed his body on. In some ways, Aegis supposed that the Tyranitar and herself weren't so different after all: they had both been killed by some bastard who didn't give a damn about anybody else. Except whatever hollow remains were left of Aegis Breckin six years ago were forced to live.
Quite abruptly, Aegis did something that no badass, no soldier, no taker-of-life should have ever done. She began to cry.
Not for the Tyranitar whose family would be sure to know of his death within the next hour, but solely for herself.Chapter End Notes:Hey, hope you enjoyed the first chapter :). Here's a little preview of the next:
Episode 2 Preview:
â��Are you sure that this is a good idea, Astus?â�a33; It had gotten dark out a while ago, and Mahri Raquin was really beginning to dislike the predicament that she had been dragged into; not one bit. Curled up in the passenger's side seat of a large van, the Jaroda watched as the office buildings and skyscrapers of Eterna City slowly passed by her window.
In the adjoining driver's 'seat' (which had been ripped out completely to accommodate room for the driver) a Lapras kept a watch on the road that had become illuminated by the van's dim headlights. The steering wheel twisted back-and-forth in front of the creature as if the vehicle were being piloted by a pair of invisible hands, but it was actually the pokemon's psychic power that kept the vehicle steering in the right direction. The Lapras, also a female, didn't offer her companion a reply.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended, and is applicable for all consecutive chapters that follow.