Marcus Jones watched, too late to intervene as Ryan stabbed the Dr. with the syringe. His mind instantly dulled by the sympathetic morphine effects coursing through Donaghue’s own body, he struggled to comprehend what was going on around him.
The blast of Xyctexyct’s idol sent a shockwave of debris flying outward. A chunk of shrapnel from the idol buried itself in Marcus’ forehead, snapping his head back at the same time as he was blown off his feet. Marcus blacked out.
Fish woke up in his dream. He was at the base of a stepped pyramid cluttered with alien vegetation. The sky was a dusky purple mixed with streaks of white light. Marcus was surrounded by thousands of other beings, indistinguishable in his dream haze but for their body language which conveyed one thing: worship. At the top of the pyramid, preaching an alien sermon to the massive crowd was Xyctexyct, massive and insect-like. Suddenly, Marcus rose from the prostrate worshippers, floating and pulled as if with unseen strings up to Xyctexyct’s black mandibled mouth. Xyctexyct opened its mouth and emitted an ear-splitting buzz that violently shook Marcus’ body. He knew what he had to do.
Marcus woke up on the floor of the lab in a pool of his own blood. Still dazed from the explosion, his head pounding, Marcus got to his feet and staggered into a table. Everyone in the lab was either unconscious or crawling around on the floor, Marcus couldn’t tell them apart thanks to the blood streaming down into his eyes. He steadied himself and tried wiping the blood away but it made no difference. No matter, Xyctexyct itself had favoured him with his attention. He alone was entrusted as the mid-wife for Xyctexyct’s awakening and re-birth.
“He is free. He is coming for us all” echoed through Marcus’ head and he exhulted in his special responsibility. He would get Xyctexyct what it needed. He would feed it the energy it needed to sustain it’s magnificent freedom.
Marcus sprinted out of the room and down the hallway to the garage area. He contemplated getting on an ATV but new instincts pushed him to run. It would be faster that way. Marcus Jones’ brain was telling him to forget the jacket too. Marcus ran outside, Xyctexyct’s need for energy overwhelming all other feelings. Marcus followed his instincts and continued to run, though soon his gait turned into something more like a jog, yet he seemed to move faster and faster. When the bloody hole in his forehead froze shut, he could finally see again, and what he saw was the submarine Khlebnikov.
Fish slowed as he reached the hull of the Khlebnikov and suddenly recoiled in terror when he saw what was following him. It’s reflection was distorted from the curvature of the hull, but it was larger than a human and looked more like praying mantis than man. Marcus spun to meet the monster but there was nothing behind him. He whirled again, thinking it had stayed behind him, but all he saw was the thing’s reflection. A realization dawned on Marcus then, and with a creeping dread he found that he could not see his own reflection. The mantis was his reflection.
Marcus Jones took a moment to examine his own hand, now a chitenous claw, through compound eyes. From inside his head a buzzing noise cut through his brief reverie. Energy for the alien god. Must get. He sensed tremedous energy potential coming from inside the sub. Dormant no longer, Marcus could feel the subtle vibrations emenating from the nuclear reactor of the vessel.
In a single bound, Marcusmantis leaped to the top of the conning tower. In moments he ripped off the hatch and wiggled his large frame into the hull.
“Kenskei? Kenskei eto ty?” The voice came from deeper inside the vessel.
Ignoring the voice, Marcusmantis compressed his body to fit under pipes and through corridors, heading to the back of the sub where the vibrations were strongest.
“Ken-AAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Marcusmantis came face to alien face with Ken’s secret accomplice, Yuri, and immediately snatched him with his mantis-like pincers. In moments, Yuri’s arms were torn off and his screams silenced as his head was effortlessly pulled from his body.
Marcusmantis moved past the missile tubes and tore off the lead-lined titanium door that led to the nuclear reactor. Standing in front of the reactor, Marcusmantis tested the strength of the shielding by plunging a claw through the outer layer of reinfroced steel. With a hiss and the scream of warning alarms, steaming coolant vented violently from the puncture.
{Xyctexyct, thy will be done!} Marcus “Fish” Jones, now midwife to Xyctexyct, ripped the nuclear reactor apart and began the meltdown.
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