Operation Fiery [Ch. 9]

The time is now thirty past eight o'clock. The sun had risen over the horizon and was now shining down at the Earth. The skies were clear, but the sea was choppy. Waves crashed alongside the landing craft as he pushed forward. All together, there were about nine landing crafts that were all heading towards the beach, closing in fast.

Each one had been carrying different necessities such as: armored jeeps with machine guns mounted on the top of them, Marines and S.W.A.T men and women. The boats swayed back and forth while riding the shore-bound waves. The bow went up, then went back down. The water constantly sprayed over the hull and into the boats, spraying equipment and soldiers with salty seawater.

"Prepare for landfall," the driver of one of the landing crafts instructed the men and women to do. They strapped their helmets under their chin so they wouldn't come off. They tightened their bullet-proof vests, loaded their guns, and double checked backup ammo magazines to see if they were full and ready when needed.

"Listen up," the Lietanant shouted, "once we land, you will not hesitate to shoot anything. Understood? Am I clear?"

"Sir, yes Sir," the occupants in the landing craft responded in unison.

"Good," he said with a determined smile on his face.

"Incoming!" The driver shouted as he pointed up into the bright clear sky. Everyone looked up to find themselves looking at something flying overhead. It was descending and descending fast it was. The sun's bright light was preventing them from identifying the incoming object.

Suddenly, a much smaller object was thrown, falling straight down. It twirled around and spun around as it came down. It happened to land in the water right in front of one of the landing crafts. As the boat passed over it, BOOM!

Split in two, the landing craft quickly sank. Remnants of the Marines and SWAT soldiers were thrown amok. Guns went ballistic, firing off the remaining ammunition they had in their magazines. Two additional explosions sent shivers down everyone else's spines. Instead of attempting the beach the boats, they ending up stopping early, still about thirty yards out from shore. The ramps were dropped, and soldiers were ordered to get out. Rushed, no one had time to assess the situation. They could only try and make it to shore before something bad happened.

U.S.S Rodney and U.S.S Maryland began firing their anti-aircraft guns, providing some cover for their comrades to make landfall. But even with that, the initial start to the invasion was turning out to be disastrous. Can they persevere? Will they make landfall?

Then, it was revealed what was causing all the ruckus and chaos. It was cannibals; those pesky sneaky creatures. How are they capable of such things? How did they build that glider? Where'd they get the dynamite from?

In the lab, Timmy was miraculously revived, but was still unconscious. His heart had stopped as soon as the foam started spewing out of his mouth. Eric had been freed from the containment room. Two Marines had stuck explosives to the outer side of the glass wall. The female Marine gently picked Timmy up off of the floor, his head resting on her shoulder. She walked over to the stairs, going down them. She and Timmy were now a safe distance from the containment room.

The two Marines sprinted away, Eric stepped back from the glass wall, putting his arm up in front of his eyes to protect them from the blast.

"Initiating in three… two… one," the Commanding Leader shouted, "Eric, get down! Fire in the hole!"

TICK, TICK, TICK. The breach explosives began their short countdown to detonating. The timer was set to ten seconds. Then…BOOM! All four explosives detonated one by one, shattering the thick glass wall into pieces and remnants. Glass spewed outward everywhere. Luckily no one was hurt.

Eric opened his eyes and lowered his right arm. He bolted out of the room, running over to the female marine holding his son. She handed him back over to Eric. He wrapped his arms around him, gently rubbing Timmy's back; up and down, up and down.

"Release Protocol Initiated," a female automated voice announced, "stand by."

Red lights started flashing. The majority of the facility's electricity was defunct. Systems Matthew found useful ran on multiple generators. Without them, the facility would be in total darkness. A door had closed. So sudden that it startled Eric.

"Timmy?" Ariel said as she walked into the lab alone. Her appendages weren't out. As everyone turned to face her, the red light had only revealed scarce details about the girl. Timmy was still unconscious in Eric's arms. When she saw the people she hadn't recognized, she then looked over to her left a bit at Eric. She could see Timmy in his arms, his head resting on his shoulder.

"Timmy?" Ariel cried out again.

She was becoming worried as Timmy neither moved or responded to her. Eric and the others stood silently, unable to take their eyes off of her. Then, conveniently, the red lights stopped flashing, plunging the lab back into almost total darkness.

"Ariel, sweetheart," Eric said as he turned around to hand Timmy back to the female marine. After doing that, he focused on Ariel once again; taking a couple of cautious steps forward towards her.

She sniffled and rubbed her eye with her hand. Eric continued slowly approaching her.

"Estimated time remaining: 1:32 seconds," the automated voice announced.

"What happened to him?" She asked Eric, sniffling her nose again.

"He'll be alright," Eric reassured, "take my hand," he continued as he extended his arm out. He was resting on his right knee.

After they left, the Witch sprinted on her hands and feet. She set her hand down on his arm. Tilting her head slightly, she gently nudged at him. Virginia, Armsy, and Natasha all came over to where the Witch was standing near Matthew.

"Dead," she said as she slowly turned away, her hand sliding off his arm and back onto the floor. She clenched her hand.

Armsy stopped whipping his arms around when he heard the Witch say that. He slowly lowered them, now all hanging down freely. Virginia lowered her head, slowly rubbing her two front-most limbs together. The Witch looked over at Matthew's body one last time…frowning and lowering her head.

FLOP! SlOOSH! FLOP! The Worm had arrived broken up, not joined together. One gasped, while another frowned. Their leader, their creator is now dead before them. Without the ability to show a-lot of emotions like normal beings, they could only express one emotion; rage. Virginia hissed, Armsy roared, and the Witch giggled and laughed maniacally. She began tirling around, jumping up and down while slamming her fists onto the floor, Virginia began running around, kicking things over, and Armsy began running around in circles flailing his arms around with rage.

STRETCH! CREAK! GROAN! Stitches slowly lowered his head, still linging onto one of the hanging lights above. No one noticed him. Stealthy Stitches. The only thing that would give his presence away was the sound of his stitches stretching and creaking sounds of whatever he was holding onto. His head hung about three feet from the floor.

When the Witch turned around, she screamed. She frowned and tilted her head, staring over at Stitches hanging head. When Virginia and Armsy saw him, they ran back over to where the Witch was now standing. Armsy was huffing and puffing, while Virginia made skittering sounds like a scorpion, followed by her familiar hissing noise.

The only indication Stitches gave them was him turning his head; turning his head in the very direction Eric, Ariel, Timmy and the Marines had ran in. Armsy, Virginia, the Witch, and the disjointed Worms all looked in the same direction as Stitches. Without signaling anything further to them, he quickly raised his head back up towards his body.

A brief moment later, his stretching stitches sounds were heard once again. This time, it was his arms and hands. In his hands, he was holding three unused syringes. Unlike the gray serum, the liquid in these syringes was the color blue, a semi-dark blue.

The Witch examined them for a moment before leaping up to snatch them out of his hand. Why three, you wonder?

"Cloning complete," the female automated voice said over the loudspeakers. None of the mutants, were expecting that. They all jumped in a brief scare. Virginia skittered, armsy roared. The Witch examined the syringes again after taking them from Stitches. There was something taped to the outer side of it. Of course, she wasn't able to read it. Neither could Virginia or Armsy. They may be amongst the high-ranking dangerous mutants, but their knowledge was very, very, very scarce.The writing on the syringe read: Mutant Enhancement Serum, | Version 3.1415A-CF |

Stitches retracted his arms back up to his body above. Light fixtures swayed as he swung to the next one, like a playful chimpanzee. The Witch turned around. Armsy and Virginia were standing inches away from her. They were both curious to see what she was holding. When she unfolded her hand to reveal the syringes, Virginia skittered and Armsy growled instead of roaring.

"Inject it," a female's voice said. This female voice was not automated like the computer version is.

Covering the syringes' needles was a clear plastic cover. Setting two on the ground alongside her, the Witch pulled the cover off; tossing it away. She, Virginia and Armsy didn't bother acknowledging the woman's voice.

A light had suddenly turned on from the viewing room. How she looked remained unknown. The light was just bright enough to mask her true self. One thing's certain, however. And that something is that they've heard this voice before… many times. From where they were below in the lab, looking up at the viewing room would only give away the shadowy figure of the woman. Slim and skinny she looked.

"This…," she began saying, "this will change…well I'll just leave that bit for later."

After finishing that strange statement, the lights in the viewing room turned off. Gone, the woman went. Hmm… that's strange.

The Witch isn't afraid of anything… however, she does have a weakness or two. In fact, every mutant, no matter how dangerous they are, all have a weakness too. In Matthew's case, it only took three gunshots to bring him down. His demise was quick. The only odd thing about his "demise" is that there was no blood.

Outside of the facility, things weren't looking too good for both sides. Cannibals V. the Military. Cowman was the only mutant fighting alongside the Cannibals. The U.S.S Maryland and the U.S.S Rodney were still shooting up at the gliding cannibals. The cannibals continued to light dynamite as they glided around the two battleships.

"Where's the fucking napalm strike?" Commander Ford shouted into his radio. After doing this, he waited for a response. He was kneeling behind a massive boulder for cover while he waited for a response.

"Eight minutes out, Commander," a female pilot responded.

Amber had slowed the boat down as she drove it up alongside the yacht. The yacht's power had been left on so she could find her way back quickly. Turning around, Joseph and Talen were standing and staring at the yacht. She faintly smiled, turning the engine off. The yacht and boat were swaying back and forth as the sea began to act up.

"This–this is yours?" Joseph asked as he looked over to his right at her. Talen did the same. She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes with a smile on her face. She nodded her head briefly, walking over to them.

She hopped out of the boat and onto the boat deck. Turning around, she looked down at the two of them. While doing that, she held her right hand out to offer assistance. Talen grabbed her hand first; her pulling him up alongside her. Joseph was next.

As she hoisted him up out of the boat, she answered their question.

"It is," she answered. "It wasn't always that way though."

"What do you mean?" Talen questioned.

She nudged her head up slightly, looking over Joseph's shoulder. Right as they both turned around, two brown sack bags were tossed over their heads. Amber put her hands behind her back, lowering her head with a sinister smile.

Two male Albino Cannibals were the ones who tossed the sacks over Joseph and Talen's heads. Two more walked out from inside. Both were holding one pair of zipties in their hands. They walked over to Joseph and Talen, wrapping the zipties around their wrists; pulling them tight.

"What–what the fuck?" Joseph shouted, "The fuck are you doing?"

"Did you really think we'd let you leave… without saying goodbye first?" She said as she approached them from behind. She leaned in close whisper to them. She mumbled one thing to them.

"Meghan," she revealed.