"PLEASE LET US GO! I'M BEGGING YOU!!" the woman screamed as she began to cry.
"Oh my dear Lucy! You'd love that, wouldn't you?! I know how much you love to get away from me."
"Listen here... uh... Meat. I know you want to let us go and stop this," Jake said, trying to hide his intense rage.
"Oh, really?"
"Y...yeah. C'mon, I've heard about this stuff before. You must've undergone a freak mutation, causing you to go insane."
"Hmmm... I never considered that," Meat said as he began to drop his guard.
"Yeah. I know you want to... well, whatever it is that you want to do to us... but you can fight those urges and free us. Trust me. I can help you."
"What if I don't want help?"
That's when Lucy showed even more fear and Jake grew confused.
"W... what do you..."
"What if I asked to be mutated? Frankly, 'mutated' isn't the right word. I prefer 'evolved.'"
"Evolved?"
"Let me ask you something, my blue friend: when you are hungry, what do you do?" Meat asked with an oddly curious tone.
"This is a waste of time, my seed! We must break out and end this!" Barry said, audible only to Jake.
"No! He might hurt the girl. Let's humor him for now. Maybe I can talk my way out of this. Maybe it doesn't have to lead to violence."
"This is a poor choice, my seed. A very poor choice indeed."
"When I'm hungry, well, I guess I grab a bite. What's your point?" Jake finally answered.
"You eat, don't you? Well, let's say you hadn't eaten for two months and, by some miracle, you were still alive."
"And?"
"And I presented a human corpse in front of you? Would you eat that?"
Immediately, Jake was disgusted and even angrier. Lucy was horrified. Could this lead to some sick experiment?
"What kind of stupid question is—"
"SEE?! SEE?! Your morals! Your humanity is what pushes your decision! That is what holds us back as a species! We tricked ourselves into believing we don't need our instincts! We brought about useless emotions like disgust and empathy! They stop us from reaching our full potential! They stop us from evolving!"
"Hmmm, so you are insane."
"Do you think it's insane to want to push humanity forward as a species?"
"Yeah. No shit, asshole! Honestly, I still think it's the mutation talking."
"Oh, well, I think I'm pretty sane. How about an experiment to prove my sanity?"
That was the word she didn't want to hear: Experiment. She'd seen it in horror movies before but never imagined living in one. Especially in a scene like this—tied to a wall made of human innards, facing an inside-out man.
All she wanted was to go home and drink this off. Even a heavy, alcohol-induced hallucination would be heaven compared to this nonsense. Lucy needed to get out of here at all costs.
"Uh... listen Mr... um... Meat, sir. I, for one, think you're perfectly sane, so how about you let us go and we all call it a day? R... right? Please?"
"Oh! I like the enthusiasm to leave, my dear! That's the point of the experiment! How about you leaving—if you let the other one die?" Meat said with a sadistic grin.
Jake and Lucy looked at each other, disgusted by the situation they were in. But a choice needed to be made.
"I choose..."
But before Jake could finish his sentence...
"I want to live! Please save me!" Lucy screamed.
"...to let her go," Jake continued at the same time Lucy spoke.
Lucy looked at Jake in horror at what she had done as Meat laughed and let her go. That's when long, hard spikes began to appear above Jake from the ceiling of innards.
"I... I'm so sorry..." Lucy tried to apologize, but Jake's face was only sympathetic behind his mask.
"It's okay. I get it. You want to live. And I want to help you live, too. Helping people is my goal in life, and if I got to help at least one person before I die, I have no regrets," Jake told her, smiling.
Lucy was crying profusely and looked away. That's when Meat approached Jake, looking disappointed.
"C'mon buddy, we both know if given enough time you'd choose to save yourself! Let your survival instinct tell you! I know deep down you don't want to die!"
"This is our chance, my seed! You don't even know this woman! Letting her die will save more lives! You want to help others so bad, but help yourself first! I am fine dying, but are you?!"
Barry was right; he wasn't ready to die. He didn't want to die, but his mission to help others would be a waste if he couldn't even help one person.
"No, I've made my decision. Let her go."
"You're a mad fool."
With a simple hand gesture from Meat, the long, hard spikes above Jake's head lowered and stabbed Jake five gruesome times through his torso. Blood spilled everywhere. It was over. Jake had lost.
"Ah, now that he's gone, let's move on to you."
"B... but you said you'd let me go!"
"Of course, but I want you to know something. Has the name Carl Sanders ever rung a bell?"
"No! I've never heard that name before in my life! Now please let me go!"
"Aw, that hurts. Okay, but did you never notice that creepy guy who always watched you intently behind your back?"
"That was you?!"
"Ding ding ding! You always were a smart girl. But where did that lead you? To a slaughterhouse to process meat? Or maybe you weren't all that smart?"
Lucy began to back away in horror.
"Or maybe you were just a spoilt brat with a nice body who thought she was better than everyone else when she clearly wasn't?"
Lucy began to run.
"Then after your parents abandoned you, seeing you had no talents, that's the only job you could land. Well, that or prostitution."
Lucy ran faster and began to scream and cry.
"And when someone began to give a shit about you, you called him a creep and deemed him unworthy of you, right?"
Soon Meat was out of sight, but she could still hear his voice.
"My dear Lucy?!"
He was now right in front of her. There was no escape.
"Don't worry," he said as he laid his disgusting hand of muscle and flesh on her shoulder. "They all treated me that way... That is when I learned to evolve. Soon, you shall too."
"Please, I'm begging you! Listen! I know I was a bitch to you but I regret it! I know now I'm a horrible person! But I've changed! Please let me go!"
"Oh, of course, but that is why you must evolve. And you shall leave more beautiful than when you entered!"
That's when her body distorted and twisted into Meat's sick image. Now she was an ugly monster, just like the ones chasing her before. Multiple hands, eyes, and feet sprouted all over her body, wriggling around in a bloody mess. The pain was agonizing.
"Now, isn't that better? Now you're the most beautiful girl on earth!" Meat mused as he began to dance with Lucy, who was now just an unsightly creature. Lucy began to cry.
"Oh, look at that! Tears of joy! We're dancing just like the Beauty and the Beast—well, the Beast and the Beast, I suppose. We're both beasts here. And soon the world shall be nothing but beasts!!!"
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER!!"
It was Jake! He was alive.
"You?! But how? I skewered you like a voodoo doll!!"
Jake didn't reveal it because it wasn't his doing. It was Barry. In Jake's last moments, Barry focused some of his darkness into Jake's healing and removed the spikes. With Jake fully healed, he was ready to fight. Jake was about to question him, but he heard Lucy's crying and rushed to help her instead.
In truth, Barry wasn't ready to die. He was just bluffing to convince Jake to live—a plan that failed. But he had a reason to live, even if it was still in Jake's body. He still had some scores to settle with this Shadowclan cult.
"ANSWER ME, YOU MONSTER!!" Jake screamed, burning blue with intense rage.
Lucy ran up to him, but soon she began to crawl... and fall. Jake, afraid for her, ran to her with incredible speed and began to comfort her.
"I'm so sorry! I should have acted sooner! This is all my fault!" Jake said as he felt intense pain that he had let her become like this.
"N... no.. I... I'm sorry," Lucy said in a dying voice. "I should've died instead. I... I am a... a... horrible person."
"No, you aren't. Please just hold on! I will help..."
Lucy died.
"Oh no! It seems the pain was too much for her!!" Meat said, pretending to be shocked. "Eh, it doesn't matter. Love is only an emotion humans use to hold ourselves ba—"
That's when a blurry blue fist met his face and sent Meat flying across the corridor. That was the first time Meat felt pain in his evolved state. He hated this.
"I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY, YOU HEAR ME?!" Jake screamed as he let the blue energy flow and cover the whole tissue-lined corridor.
"Oh, come on! Why do you care? It's not like you knew her," Meat said, annoyed.
He then jumped back as Jake was already in front of him, ready to give another painful blow. It was the first time he had felt fear in this new form... and he hated it even more. But the more he dodged Jake's attacks, the faster he got until...
Jake's attack landed on Meat's chest, but Meat was one step ahead. Now Jake's hand was stuck, and Meat sprouted several arms from his back.
"Any last words, my blue friend?"
"I've got a couple, but I'll need my whole lifetime to say them. Something you won't be cutting short."
Jake then overloaded his hand with K.E. and unleashed it into Meat, causing him to explode into tiny, disgusting pieces. The force broke Jake's arm in the process.
"Are you okay, my seed?"
"Y... yeah, I'm fine. Just got a broken arm. That's all. At least he's gone."
"My seed, if that were the case, I'm sure the building would be back to normal."
"Yeah, you're right..."
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU REALLY THINK THAT WOULD BEAT ME?!"
Jake could hear his voice but couldn't pinpoint Meat's location with his hearing.
"My seed, you will need more kinetic energy to find him."
That's when several tentacles with spikes at each end appeared from the walls of the fleshy corridor behind Jake, ready to strike him down.
"And you will need to run!"
"Already on that."
Once the tentacles began moving, Jake was already gone. To Barry's surprise, Jake was generating K.E. like crazy. All so he could use it for one singular purpose: to bring Meat down. Meat could feel Jake's bloodlust emanating across the whole building, so he sent more tentacles to attack Jake from the front.
But Jake dodged them. He then made a giant wall to block Jake's path. But Jake punched a hole through it. He then turned all the people back into monsters and sent them to Jake. But Jake pulled out their fingers, turning them back to normal. At this point, all Meat could see was a literal blue blur.
Meat had had enough and trapped Jake in a dead end. That's when he decided to shrink the room. He also kept quiet so Jake couldn't hear his voice and track him.
Jake knew there was no way to escape through the walls.
So he used the floor.
Jake charged his blue fist and punched the floor, crushing it in a pool of blood and sending himself to the floor below. Where he did the same thing, sending himself down again. And again... and soon he was right in front of Meat's true form.
A deformed man covered with muscle fibers and tissues in a giant capsule. He couldn't move an inch. He was at Jake's mercy.
"H... how did you find me?! I made sure to be quiet!" Meat said, confused.
"You can shut your mouth, but you can't shut your heartbeat. And yours is the only irregular one here."
Jake approached Meat and his fist grew even more blue with each passing moment. Meat was scared shitless.
"N... no wait! Don't you get it! I'm what humanity should be striving for! I'm—"
"I get it. When you're hungry, you eat. When you're thirsty, you drink. Look, I really don't give a shit what you do, but when you hurt innocent people, I draw the line. But it's clear that you don't give a shit about that line."
"No! Stay away! No! I didn't escape from him to be beaten by the likes of you!!"
"Too bad... I don't know who this 'him' is, but he's got nothing on me."
"NOOO! ...Huh? What are you doing?"
Jake restrained his fist mid-punch. Was he sparing him?
"Listen, I want to kill you. With every fiber of my being. You are a soul beyond redemption. But that isn't my job."
Jake then ripped Meat out of his tissue capsule and dragged him across the floor. This caused the whole building to return to normal. Jake could even hear the police raiding the building from the floor below him.
"That's the city's job. I'm no judge, jury, or executioner. I'm just a guy trying to help. And that means sending you to the real judges, juries, and executioners."
"What?! Are you insane?! I'll just break out of jail! I'll kill more people!!"
Jake looked at him for a moment. What if it was true? What if he escaped from prison? Wouldn't that make all his future crimes Jake's fault?
Silence.
But Meat didn't respond to Jake's silence. In fact, he couldn't respond. Jake was confused by the sudden silence and looked at Meat... only to see he was dead. He had been stabbed by a large knife. But how could someone stab him without Jake noticing? Unless it was thrown.
"How disappointing."
Jake looked forward and saw a figure wearing a suit that was black on one side and white on the other.
"W... who are you?"
Little did Jake know, his name was Ace. One of the deadliest men on earth.
To be continued...