Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

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Sunny was the first to react. Steel rasped over steel as she darted to stand protectively between Adam and the manic naked man who had just decked him. With the butt end of her spear, she rammed the stranger back into the wall, before flipping her spear around to lay the blade point end at the base of his throat.

The stranger huffed loudly as he was thrown back against the wall, wind knocked partially from his lungs, but when he finally regained his breath, instead of speaking, protesting or otherwise, he simply began to laugh.. The laugh was long, loud and rather manic leaving Sunny a bit unsettled.

She snarled, pressing the speartip hard against his throat, cutting off the laugh. Her eyes darted to Krill's lifeless body which lay dangling under one of the man's arms, "IS he dead?"

The man giggled.

Sunny snarled, "You better think of your next words very carefully, or I'm going to run you through like a kebab."

Behind her on the floor, Adam was just beginning to regain his senses.

The punch hadn't been strong enough to knock him out, but he flexed his jaw experimentally as he sat up, a woozy hand to his head.

"WAIT!"

Some of the pressure eased up on Sunny's spear, and she drew back slightly, turning her head only far enough to be able to see to the end of the hallway, while still being able to keep an eye on their attacker.

She was certainly surprised to find Dr. Katie dressed in full surgical scrubs come puffing up the hallway, followed closely by Celex and Conn in similar states of dress. Katie held out a hand, "Don't hurt him."

Sunny frowned, glanced down at Krill's limp body and then back at them.

It took her a few seconds to weigh their friendship, determine how much she trusted them before stepping back and lowering her spear. The man relaxed somewhat, breathing hard as his head fell forward. She had nicked the skin of his neck a bit, causing a gentle ruby to begin forming against his russet skin.

Slowly, the man reached up, passing a hand over his neck before drawing his hand away to examine the blood now staining his fingers. Instead of being fearful like she might have assumed, he was almost gleeful.

Sunny turned towards the end of the hall, the question plain on every line of her face.

Who was this madman? For a moment she assumed it was a crew member who had had some sort of psychotic break due to the anesthesia. She wasn't sure if that was possible, but it was plausible enough to keep hr from murdering him just on prinicpal.

Adam was still holding a hand to his face when the stranger's expression finally began to resolve itself away from manic .

In the space of a moment, the stranger went very still, the manic light in his eyes died away, replaced by something that was unnervingly like cold calculation. He turned his expression back to Adam, who still sat on the floor looking back and forth between the stranger and the surgical team searching for answers that were not forthcoming

"You have no idea how long I have waited to do that." Adam frowned and Sunny frowned with him. Somehow that voice seemed, familiar, vocal tone, or cadence or something that she couldn't place.

The familiarity of the voice only served to deepen Adam's confusion.

"I'm sorry have we-"

The stranger didn't bother to answer the question, but kept going, "For all the stupid, idiotic, dangerous, numb skulled bullshit that you have put me through over the years." The stranger was gaining some momentum, slow deliberate words devolving rapidly into a no holds barred rant that echoed up and down the hallway, "For all the cuts, burns, poisonings, gunshots, electrocutions, stabbings, abrasions lacerations, contusions and concussions because you are the dumbest, most foolhardy, self sacrificing dumbass with the world's most rotund savior complex, and all the time you are leaving me there to sit and worry, and twiddle my antenna on principal-"