The Lords of Sol

Progress was quick through the first four levels of the base, Blinky and his men quickly eliminating the zombie infestation that was pouring out of the lowest level. Blinky was starting to get a headache, probably from all the smells of death and rot in the facility.

Descending into the fifth sub-basement, Blinky took out two zombies and led his team further down the cooridor. The level was silent. The dead bodies of scientists and researchers littered the floor, but no other hostiles appeared. Of course, the big ominous doors at the end of the hall would have to be opened.

Blinky stayed on point, the sharp gnawing in his forehead grating on his nerves, making him want to shoot more zombies. His com was on the fritz, not getting anything but static. He could only hope the beacon was strong enough to pierce whatever hellish electromagnetic interference was surrounding this place.

The door swung open easily to reveal the exact thing Blinky didn't want to see. A Nemesis. A Nemesis with glowing green eyes, standing in front of an alien. An alien with a smug look on his face that teleported out of the room, leaving the Nemesis to attack.

Sweetheart... get out of here.
Blinky...

Blinky held out his pistol for her to take.

Ariel, that's a fucking order, go. NOW!

Ariel and the SHARKs opened a brief round of fire before running off, their suped up gun barely slowing the creature down as it walked directly towards Blinky.

-----------
On the surface, Martin and Lasser sat beside the beacon, looking anxiously up at the ship floating above them, wishing their guns would somehow work against it. Martin was the first one to start to speak.

You know what, fuck this! Why do we have to sit here and watch some aliens take shit over? We accidently shoot some guy we aren't supposed to, and now were the shit heads who get to sit by the beacon with our thumbs up our asses.
You shouldn't have shot that guy, he wasn't Hezbollah.
He was a god damned PLO! One terrorist or another, who cares?
At least the terrorists die when you shoot them. Lord, I hate spaceships.
Space, fuck space. You hear me,Martin turned to shout at the ship, fuck space! And fuck you!

An explosion from the ship accentuated his insult, the ship listing slightly to the side as the side of its hull blew out. Martin and Lasser looked at each other.

That was remarkably effective.
Yea, I gotta remember that trick.

The pair headed over to where a small dwarfish man with a beard was hanging in a tree, the thick jungle foliage having broken his fall. Lasser moved closer, while Martin trained his weapon at the man.

Freeze, stay where you are. Identify yourself sir.

 

The xplosion caught Wolfsbane, again, off his guard, and he nearly fell off the streetlight again. He did manage to reach out and grab it in the last second though, now haning upside-down from it with only one of his hooves preventing him from falling down.

It was quite a long way down, but Wolfsbane decided that, now that he was ready, he could face that fall and probably get out of it without too much pain.

He let go, and rolled as he hit the ground. He did hit his back though, and let out a faint sigh of pain and frustration.

He looked around himself, and spotted two men pointing their rifles at a dwarf in a tree. Maximus, probably. Wolfsbane wasn't too fond of the little bugger, but he disliked the idea of losing a lord to such bugs even more.
They might be allies, but the risk is too great.

Wolfsbane jumped into the air and drew two kunai-daggers, which he then threw at the two men pointing rifles at Maximus. The daggers hit them in the neck by suprise, and they collapsed on the ground without as much as a whisper.

Wolfsbane landed again and walked up to Maximus.
Hi there, Max, he said, That was easy enough. What d'you reckon we should do now?

 

Ariel and the remaining guards rushed out of the facility as hell materialized in the basement level.

Blinky leaned to the right, letting the Nemesis' first blow to pass easily by. The bear belt the creature in the stomach and threw in back.

A Nemesis isn't a creature to be thrown off its guard long, and with surprising ease it leapt back, connecting with Blinky's jaw twice and throwing him back into a table. Blinky rolled to the side of the table, rolling it around his back and knocking the Nemesis sideways. With a grownl he leapt on him, head pounding the whole time.

Blinky smashed him into the wall and bashed his fists into the creatures ribs again, the cracking of its biogenetically enhanced ribs pleasing to his throbbing ears. The creature and him went back and forth until Blinky finally had him pinned about to deliver a blow that would send his head into the floor.

Just then the headaches doubled back, leaving his eyes swimming as the Nemesis swung behind him and left a deep gash in Blinky's arm. Blinky staggered backwards and blasted the entire room with a shot of cold as he fell, freezing the Nemesis stiff.

A Nemesis is resistant to cold effects for the most part, but Blinky's shot slowed it down enough for Blinky to recover and use his own claws, easily tearing four inch wide grooves in the Nemesis' face before lifting the moster up and face planting it into the concrete. Blinky's foot stomped on the back of its head, the sickening squish signalling its demise.

Blinky looked down at his arm, the would oozing deep red blood.

This is not good...

 

Maximus dropped out of the tree and looked at the two dead soldiers, and then grabbed their rifles and ammunition.
Offering one to Wolfsbane, Thanks for that Wolfsie, hopefully I'll get the opportunity to return the favor some day. I just came outta the ship and was talking with one of the leaders, who was nice enough to fill me in on their plans... He then proceeded to tell him about the five items being sought after by the aliens, and the whole Cthulhu plot.

Here's how I figure it, we either tell the others what these guys are up to, or try and stop them now. What do you think?

By the way, where the hells are we?

Maximus inspected the gash on his back and noticed the bleeding had stopped, despite the pain. He decided to wait on medical attention until things calmed down a bit. The beacon on the back of the ship still pulsed away, hopefully his gang had found a way of following it all the way to South America, or else it might be a long walk back.....

 

Ariel and her team ran out of the facility, to run into a dwarf and a cow standing over the bodies of Martin and Lasser. The guns started to come up when Ariel gave the order to stand down. She'ld seen these two before, they were Lords like Blinky.

I work for Blinky, identify yourselves.

Blinky staggered back up the stairs, his arm still bleeding freely. His head was swimming, and his blood was infected with not one, but two dangerous viruses. They fought each other, one slowly gaining dominance over the other. In the meantime, the headaches didn't subside.

 

Wolfsbane reached for a kunai-dagger, but didn't throw it; they could be telling the truth, and killing them if they did just didn't appeal to Wolfsbane.

He glanced at the team, and then introduced himself.
I'm Wolfsbane, one of the Lords, he said, and then he pointed at the two dead men at his feet and continued, And these two men threatened my friend Maximus here, one of the other Lords. If they were on your side, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. If I'd known they worked for Blinks I'd never've killed them.

He then turned towards Blinkys team, and tightened the grip on his kunai.
I mean, we're on the same side, aren't we?

 

I have no reason to assume we're not, unless you're working with those reject space invaders.

Blinky interrupted her spiel when he staggered out of the door of the facility and fell to his knee, holding his arm.

Ariel ran over and tied a strip from her shirt around his arm to staunch the flow.

Blinky, what happened.
Get ready for departure, there was nothing here, ignoring her question. Hey Wolf... Maximus. Funny seeing you boys here.

 

The Professor hit the transmit button and sat back. He let out a long sigh.
I hope I've just done the right thing.
He had no love for the Lords, they were reckless, egotistical, power mongers. However if this unknown enemy defeated the Lords things would be worse. Several squabbling egomaniacs are much easier to live with than one all-powerful maniac.
A summary of the message he had just sent still scrolled across the screen.

Cult of Cthulhu is a front.
Aliens are in fact former humans infected with a retrovirus to alter their DNA.
Retrovirus is loosely based on Umbrella Corp T-virus
(possible involvement ~67% probability)

Purpose of ship: To gather Lords together
Direct attack unlikely.
Chance of viral and / or nano covert attack: High

Technology is of earth origin.
Groups with access to that level of technology: Lords, Pan-European Cabal, KGB and the Illuminati.
Most likely culprit: Renegade Lord

One of the Lords wants the sandbox to him (or her) self.
Have fun finding out who!

He couldn't resist adding the last part. He smiled as it scrolled off the screen.
A few seconds later the computer beeped to inform him that the message had been sent.
It had been bounced off seventeen different satellites (including a couple of old Soviet nuclear-tactical satellites that everyone else had forgotten about), routed through the Pentagon, a Citizen Band radio set in Texas, a local infomercial station and finally off into space. At no point was the signal actually sent to the Lords but he knew the KGB and the CIA would flag it as suspicious encrypted data and the Lords would leech it from them seconds later.

 

Wolfsbane quickly let his kunai go and walked up to Blinky as fast as he could. If something'd managed to hurt the Bear that bad, it was something nasty, and Wolfsbane told himself not to go down there any time soon. He pushed Ariel aside and helped Blinky, the best he could, to his feet.
He then gathered a vast amount of his chakra (the wound looked pretty bad), and said:

Good to see you, too, Blinky. D'you have any idea of what the hell is going on, exactly?

He then saw Ariels irritated glare, like if she wanted to say: He can't talk right now, he's injured!
Therefore, the cow added:

Give me a moment dear, and I'll handle his wound. All right, Blinks, this might hurt. A lot. So brace yourself, right? Good!

Wolfsbane concentrated every nerve and muscle in his body, and put his front hooves on Blinkys wound. He then focused his chakra energy, and let out a warm, healing wave on the wound.
The gashes started glowing with intense heat, almost looking as they might hurt him more than they were healing him, but then the effect kicked in and the wound closed itself.
Wolfsbane stood still for a few more seconds, and then let out a sigh of relief and fell to his knees, shivering. Healing was not his speciality, and he'd spent most of his remaining chakra on restoring Blinkys fatigue. The bear was more important than Wolfsbane right now, anyway.

He looked up at Blinky and smiled as broadly as his cow face allowed him to, and then asked, with a slightly trembling voice:

Jeez, that wound was deeper than I thought. I'd like a smoke now, please...

 

Max watched Wolfie patch up Blinks, and took note of the entourage accompanying him. Shouldering the rifle, he was about to ask Ariel what was going on, when his gauntlet started beeping. He looked at the PDA mounted inside of his glove over his wrist and read a message being forwarded from Amidala. They'd just intercepted a message from an unknown source, and triangulation techniques had provided a rough location somewhere in the Los Angeles area. After reading the message, he walked over to the other two Lords.

Seems we've got a problem boys..., and he showed them the message. After giving them a minute to read it, he added:
Who do you think would be behind something like this? And why?

It would have to be someone who's technologically advanced enough to mettle with viruses, and reckless enough to actually use them. That should narrow it down a bit

By the way Blinky, where did you get that wound from? You dont look so well....

 

Sir, neutralizing the virus takes priority over warning the other lords! For lack of a better term, if you're not seen to within eight hours, you're boned!
This comment was met with a radioactive glare.
You get in contact with them in any way possible! They have to know what happened at the spaceship, they need to know it was a trap! Ugh..
Grossenschwaum collapsed into his lounger, exhausted from the pain and his struggle to keep conscious.
They probably already know something's wrong...but it should be easier to get this one problem staunched with all of us working toward the same end.
Grossenschwaum hadn't even noticed that his thoughts were being broadcast over the PA system.
Uh...Sir? It seems the virus has begun to intercept and broadcast your thoughts.
Whoever made this obviously has something very strange in mind...

 

Blinky's head swam. Wolf had managed to patch him up physically, but the T-Virus was still in his veins, slowly working its dangerous course. Purer and more potent that the infection from the ship, it neutralized both his cells and the the other virus.

But Blinky was no mental pushover. Out of the buzz of images he managed to pull a few frighteningly familiar ones.

Stop worrying about me, all of you. I'm fine. We have to go, there's an island in the Pacific called Aktley, we have a date with a "space monster."

He looked down at Ariel with a small smile, besides, it takes more than a scatch to take me down.

Blinky glanced over at the bodies of Lasser and Martin and shook his head.

It's a shame, they were good men. We don't have time to return to base, so we'll be running two shy from here on in, unless the two of you, turning to Maximus and Wolfsbane, want to serve as replacements.

 

Blinky turned to Maximus and said, It's a shame, they were good men. We don't have time to return to base, so we'll be running two shy from here on in, unless the two of you want to serve as replacements.

What the hell, it beats walking back to California. He agreed, but was growing concerned by the bear's appearance, something wasn't quite right. He'd tag along and keep an eye on him, just in case.

Walking behind the others, he tapped away at his PDA and sent some info back to Amidala. Then, as casually as he could he came along side Blinky, asking what they should do next, but was actually taking a small sample of bloody fur from his back, making sure nobody noticed. Then he dropped back and put the sample into a small vial connected to his PDA to be analyzed remotely.

Something wasn't quite right about this whole mess, after all he'd been injured as well and wasn't feeling as bad as him....

So Blinky, how'd you get injured? Was there a number of them, or just a few big guys that roughed you up?

....By the way, why are we in Venezuela in the first place?

 

Blinky started up the truck while Maximus asked him questions.

This facility is owned by mutual acquaintences of ours and the aliens. You've heard of Umbrella, right? And as for my attacker, he's out of the picture, unless he figured out how to reconstruct his own head. We should leave now, we don't want to be late for the festivities.

 

Wolfsbane walked up alongside Blinky, still wondering exactly what attacked and caused the Bear such wounds, and started looking for something to surf on. Sure, he was tired. But not that tired.
He found a long iron-pipe, wretched it from it's place and then walked up to Blinky again.

In wich direction are we going, Blinky? he asked, And about how far?

 

They filed into the truck and drove back to Puerto la Cruz, where an H9 was waiting.

Aktley Island, a small rock in the middle of the South Pacific. It's approximaely two miles from an undersea complex that sunk a good many years ago. That's where we're headed.

 

Maximus' techno-gaunlet picked up the entire conversation.
A few thousand miles away the Professor listened intently to the intercepted signal.
Aktley? Hmm. Computer. Data on Aktley. Geographic.
Please re-define search parameters.
He reached for the keyboard with a scowl on his face and typed "Aktley", "Aktly", "Aktli" and a few other combinations.
Search.
No data found.
Hmm. Query the database backup hacked from Lord Vorak's network.
That data is 5 months out of date. Do you wish to sync with current Lord network traffic?
No. Too risky. That kind of network infringement might be detected. Just reference existing sources.
Scanning...
Aktley. Small South Pacific islet. Volcanic. Limited vegetation. No known vertebrate life. No known structures. No known human activity.
Continue.
Aktley. Small South Pacific islet. Volcanic. Limited vegetation. No known vertebrate life. No known structures. No known human activity.
Hmmph. Give me a scan of the island.
A fuzzy blue image appeared on the screen. Like a picture of ocean that had been blurred around the edges.
Computer. Increase resolution. Clean up the image.
All parameters currently set to maximum.
Factor in graviton scan. The Pan-European Cabal satellite should be within range. Link into that and use their advanced sensor suite.
A large lump appeared in the middle of the blur but refused to resolve into anything more informative.
The man's face creased into a frown and he considered thumping his fist for dramatic effect. Nah.
He calmly walked over to an alcove in the wall and retrieved a set of gloves attached to thick bundles of fibre optics.
Computer. Activate the drone.

 

Run a scan on the virus's activity worldwide!
Grossenschwaum eagerly awaited the results, albeit with as few thoughts as possible. He didn't want his Dogmen finding out his way of thinking.
finishfinishFinishFINISHDAMNIT! Oh...I heard that. And that.
The dogmen stifled a small chuckle, and then Einundvierzehn had an update;
Sir! It would appear that Blinky's virus has been destroyed by some outside source. We're not sure what, exactly. Xiao's is still active, however. Hers seems less "energetic" than yours.
It must be all of the ambient radiation circulating through my body. Attempt a scan of Blinky's bio-electrics, we might gain some insight as to what could've happened to him.
He seems to be injured...and infected with some new pathogen. We believe this other virus is the reason for the mechanical virus being destroyed. We have some further information...it would seem he has what is known as the T-Virus. Our database tells us that this virus is not neutralized by radioactivity...you could possibly contract this new virus and be rid of your current infection.
I know what that virus does! Didn't you catch any of the reports from Raccoon City? I told the heads of Umbrella NOT to use this strain! Sure, there's a one in a million chance that you'll become a fully aware super-variant (or a Tyrant), but the rest of that million is all zombies! I will NOT risk that chance!
The Dogmen stared blankly at Grossenschwaum.
What? I fucking HATE zombies!
We all know that, sir. It's just that you had said "this strain." Do you happen to have other types of this virus?
...Yes. I had personally helped in bio-engineering the T-Virus.
All they heard were the plusses; CHANCE to become immortal, CHANCE to be super-human. Then, they tried to "silence" me. I'm still here, now, obviously. I ended up taking some of the samples with me, and I refined several.
Recently, my colleague, Dr. Birkin, developed the G-Virus. He ended up sending me a few samples of that as well. I've let them sit in our locked freezer, I'm not touching them. Though, I haven't heard from him in some time...
The dogmen sat, amazed.
All I could do with the T-Virus is lessen the chance of the host becoming a zombie. The chances, now, are one in 250000.
Sir, it's either that one in 250000 chance that you'll live, or we can guarantee your death within five hours if we stay the course.
What the hell? I really can't win, can I? My choice is an ALMOST guaranteed future as the living dead, or my guaranteed death at the claws of some microscopic machine coursing through my veins. You know what? Screw it. Give me the refined T-Virus. You had just better have a weapon capable of penetrating my skull.

 

Wolfsbane nodded to Blinky, and then turned to face in the direction of Aktley island. He took a deep breath, him being rather weak at the moment, and then threw the iron pipe in his hands as hard as he could.

He then jumped onto the flying pipe, and set off through the air, once again, towards the island. He wondered many things right now. He wondered, for example, why the hell his head hurt so much right now, and why his chakral attempts to cure it hadn't worked.

He was probably going to have to contact some of the other Lords about this. He hated being in pain without being able to handle it by himself.
He munched a spam and then focused his chakra on Grossenschwaum.

Gross? Can you hear me? I'm talking to you by chakra right now. It might feel a litle wierd at the beginning, my voice coming from your chest and all, and your dogmen not being able to hear me. But I guess you can bear with it for a while...
He paused, and continued:
Gross, do you have any idea why I'm in such a constant, uncurable pain? I mean, even I can't heal this with chakra! What the fuck's going on? Just answer me by thought. I can't hear it when you're speaking...

He seriously hoped that Gross had the answer. Otherwise, things could get complicated.

 

The H9 from before had gone through retrofitting, and picked them of at Peurto la Cruz. The vehicle having been running on only standard equipment since Blinky wasn't expecting this at all. Power had been restored to most of the United States, with the exception of most of Tennessee, where a few groups of southern 'gentlemen' had taken over the power company, declaring the lights in the sky over Texas was a sign from God.

Most of them were probably on meth, but the government was nonetheless currently spinning the story to the media and inventing an organization they were part of. This organization had masterminded the entire electrical disaster to coincide with a comet passing Earth. The comet actually struck the planet, and evaporated in the upper atmostphere. The President would probably win re-election based upon his tireless campaign to combat this fake organization, and countless of millions of US dollars would disappear into the fight against a foe that didn't even exist.

Blinky was honestly impressed with how the CIA funded half of its daughter organizations, but those thoughts quickly vacated his mind as another round of searing pain coursed through his head. He could barely hear Ariel in his ear, whispering things to try to ease the pain as he clutched his head on the chopper. She must have known where the wound came from, although she hadn't asked about it again.

A small part of Blinky felt fear then, and he remembered the sensation so vividly from all those years back, when he had last felt it. He was still a child, the day he met his sensei. He had been saved one day from an attack by a band of evilly, frightening wolves back when he was a cub, and his sensei had saved him. He was a good man.

Blinky shook his head and felt strange. Then he looked out on the rapidly falling away South American coastline, before turning to the Pacific. He checked his watch; they were entering one time zone west of California, and three and a half hours had passed, meaning Aktley, another two time zones east, and an hour and and a half flight, would probably be reached around midnight, local time. That would leave the SHARKs, with their limited human eyesight, at a disadvantage. He was happy he had at least upgraded their gun lights, the standard ones would have been awful in these circumstances.

Blinky leaned back and rubbed his head, gritting his teeth through the pain of trying to think with the headaches. Soon they'ld reach Aktley, and then maybe he could do something about the pain.