“I want you to stand to the side,” he gestured to a ridge of metal to the side. “Behind there. I’m going to lure it out so that when it’s through I have its full attention. I want you to run through, close the door, and head for Matt and the bridge.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Norah, you can’t fight this. It’s a demon, for lack of a better term. It won’t go down easily.”
Her fingers clasped his wrist. “I can’t leave you, love; leaving you will kill me. It can’t be worse than Axone.”
Stryker turned to her and pulled on one of her curls. “Feels right, doesn’t it?” he asked but felt the pressure of the silence to be ominous. The Wieraptor was cunning, intelligent, dangerous, and strong. His mouth tilted up. Love felt the same way.
“What does?” He heard her ready her gun.
“Saying, love.”
Norah stepped to his side and behind the metal that would cover her until the path was clear. “Don’t start, Cyborg.” She sighed. “Just get through this alive, please. I can’t think about anything, at all, right now with everything fighting to be in the forefront of my thoughts.” She pointed at him, her finger straight at his heart. “If you don’t get out of this alive, I’m going to curse you to my dying breath, I swear it.”
He chuckled, and with one long look at her he placed his hand on the panel and overrode the door’s security measures.
It slid open with a screech, slow and disjointed. It shuddered and groaned as the passageway behind slowly revealed itself to him, a chaotic vista of destruction and pounded metal, bent out of shape, with claw marks covering every square foot of the space.
Stryker caught the eyes of his would-be captive, tense and still on the other end of the hallway. His eyes flashed blue as he switched his scope sight to infrared. The Wieraptor blinked redshot eyes back at him. Steam puffed from its nostrils as it sniffed him.
He reached up and dislodged his mask. It poised to attack. He dropped the metal piece to the ground; the sound of it hitting the grated floor joined with the clatter of nails as the beast came at him.
Bloodlust rushed in his veins and electricity coursed through his systems. He lifted his gun and aimed for the eye, firing off two shots before the collision.
Norah screamed from somewhere beyond as the Wieraptor crashed into him. The crunch of teeth and metal rang amidst the continuous gunfire. It ended all too soon as the weapon clicked without ammo. Stryker slammed the gun down onto the snout of the creature, beating it with a ferocity that matched the starved howls of the beast.
The thick smell of urine invaded the lab, and the heavy wash of acidic liquid hit his legs as the Wieraptor sought to mark its claim over what was his.
Stryker dropped the gun and rolled to the side just as the mouth of the monster came snapping down at him. He unsheathed the pistol he had holstered at his side and pushed the nuzzle up against the thing’s throat, shooting off his entire clip, his metal aspect giving into the frenzy.
The Wieraptor reared up on its hind legs and the bullets he had embedded in its hide were forced out as the monster flexed its muscles.
His fangs emerged from his gums, pushing out his human teeth. Toxic venom rose up as his gut synthesized the poison. The creature struck down at him, catching him in his arm. Sword-like claws drove into the heavy metal of his biceps.
Stryker was pinned to the ground.
A series of shots rang out. They didn’t come from his gun–Norah had given him a moment as the Wieraptor whipped its head around to find the bullet’s source.
“No!” he screamed. He saw Norah run back up the stairs from the corner of his eyes.
The claw that held him lifted up but he grasped it and shifted into the reptilian horror he truly was.
“Norah, run!” he screamed as he unloaded the electric pistol into the throat of the beast. The clothes ripped off of his frame and he lost the belt with his spare weapons as his legs fused together, his skin pulled back, and his tail grew from his body.
He was dragged across the floor, the debris gouging his back as the thing went after Norah. The Wieraptor seemed to know that if it took her out it would win. The second-floor railway pushed into his back as he wrapped his tail around the beast’s back legs.
Norah’s fading footfalls were music to his ears as the creature tripped, its head snapping, teeth out, jaws pulled back, at something out of his view.
He only hoped that Norah was beyond its reach. A terrible roar filled his ears, making him recoil at the sound. He responded by withdrawing his arms into his chest and completing his transformation.
“Death comessss to thossssse who crossssss me,” he hissed, his voice low and garbled. The Wieraptor landed on its side and he felt the slight bend of several of his plates as part of him was crushed in the impact. He tangled himself amongst the monster’s limbs, expanding his body to asphyxiate it under the strength of his coils. He heard the click and snap of teeth biting near his face, its body twisting and turning to try and grab hold of his form.
Stryker bared his fangs and growled back. He knew the moment the monster realized he couldn’t reach him because it rolled onto its back and tried to crush him instead.
He slithered out of the tight and uncomfortable pressure that had been imposed on his metal skeleton. His mechanics tried to realign, but couldn’t in their newly-warped state. Stryker gritted his teeth and shot free.
The Wieraptor collided with the nearest habitat, the sound of splintering glass had him tightening his hold on the creature. He slowly maneuvered to wrapped around its neck.
