Chapter 119: Ch157. Sickness - 12 (Do whatever it takes)
Kurt ran wildly, not realizing how much time had passed, nor how many meters, or even kilometers he ran, after he had given that very first step.
It was as if everything passed by him in the blink of an eye.
Even time became, somehow, meaningless during Kurt’s pursuit of the red, falling object that pierced through the sky towards the ground.
As if when he closed his eyes very briefly, he had passed out for the briefest of moments, and at the same time, for the longest while.
And when he opened his eyes again, not knowing how his body could move that fast, or walk that far without having him at least pant ever so slightly, he was in front of the crater where the meteor had fallen.
Still smoking, the meteor lay like a sleeping beast at the bottom of that enormous cavity in the earth.
And the hole it had left was gigantic.
Big enough and deep enough to fit an entire lake, with fish and all.
But it was as dry as dry could get, with fire burning in a few places around and near the alien stone.
For the first time in as long as Kurt could imagine, however, he wasn’t shocked, or even surprised, to find himself here.
He felt like he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
***
As Doctor Lee watched Kurt, she remembered the first time she had taken care of the boy.
"Who would have thought that you would grow up to become a thorn in the Ishir’s side, huh..." She asked, even though she knew she wouldn’t receive any response from the young man. "Eighteen years old, still alive, and already emanating energetic readings of a medium to high category wielder..." She sighed. "I can hardly believe your initial readings were <F-0>."
Doctor Lee laughed at such a prospect.
"The weakest wielder of all, surviving and carrying as much or more power than most wielders could ever dream of wielding, against all odds."
She paced from one side of the room to the other, after running several tests and collecting tissue samples from Kurt.
And after a few moments of deep consideration, he approached the young man again, taking a scalpel from the pocket of his coat.
"I guess I can call this a gift." She sighed heavily. "Yeah... I guess I can really say I’m giving you a gift... Come back soon, Kurt Blake. I want to see how far you can go, with your own life and willpower..."
Doctor Lee opened a small cut on her finger, from which a single drop of blood came out, which she let fall onto Kurt’s half-open lips.
"Consider this a little push for you to fight the parasite coursing through your veins right now..."
And with a half smile, she left the room.
Leaving Kurt alone to fight whatever was infesting his body.
***
Kurt looked, almost hypnotized, at the crater and the meteor, which radiated a reddish luminescence.
"So... You were the one who caused all this damage..." Kurt heard himself asking, almost in a daze.
[WAKE UP, KURT BLAKE!]
[WAKE UP, BEFORE IT FINDS YOU!]
Kurt didn’t feel a headache this time.
On the contrary, he understood that this was a genuine warning of danger.
Even though he had no idea where that voice was coming from.
He looked everywhere, feeling that something was really coming, but he couldn’t see anything.
Kurt raised his little hands to his forehead, trying to see further, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight, but he couldn’t see anything beyond the tree cover of the dense forest that loomed near the crater.
"It will be-"
Kurt was interrupted by a loud, deafening sound of something that sounded like metal scraping against a chalkboard.
His body lost control for a few moments, and again, Kurt fell to his knees on the floor, covering his ears.
When he got up, the little boy noticed two things.
The first was that somewhere to his left, although very far from him, something had lit up blue.
’A Bubble?’ He asked himself, not understanding how he knew that.
The second thing he noticed was that a strangely familiar creature lay not far from him.
Silver skin, two pairs of eyes, a mouth with teeth that didn’t stop moving, scraping against each other, and an incredibly powerful-looking body.
Kurt knew that, whatever it was, that thing was capable of tearing him in two without the slightest effort.
In the distance, to Kurt’s left, there was actually a Bubble forming, and without Kurt noticing, because the little boy was too focused on the creature in front of him, too focused on trying not to feel afraid, on trying to regain control of his body, to If he could escape, the blue membrane of the Bubble would break little by little, letting a kind of red mist leak out into the world.
But Kurt wasn’t able to perceive that, since his body didn’t carry any trace of power.
***
The creature seemed to be standing in front of Kurt, a little away from him, approaching with slow, calculated steps.
Kurt felt the tension in the air, his chest rising and falling, his breathing slightly uneven.
His hands were sweaty, cold, and his knees were shaking ever so slightly.
Kurt didn’t know what to do.
"Wh...Who...What are you...?"
[RUN!]
And without worrying about where that voice was coming from, or what that voice was, Kurt’s knees finally stopped shaking, and he ran.
His little legs moved as if they had a will of their own, and Kurt ran around the crater, seeing the strange and frightening figure shrinking little by little with the distance.
Kurt could see, as he ran, looking down, not paying attention to his surroundings, with pure, primal fear coursing through his veins, a strange reddish, luminescent smoke covering the entire forest floor around him.
He couldn’t explain it, but something inside him was feeling, ever so slightly, and little by little, more comfortable and familiar with that forest.
He managed to cover a considerable distance, despite his small size and fragile-looking body, entering the layer of trees that thickened near the crater, behind the creature’s back.
After some more time running, Kurt thought he was finally free of it.
Panting, he leaned back against a tree, resting on his knees, trying forcibly to catch his breath.
When the creature suddenly appeared before him.
Without any warning or noise.
Kurt only had time to bend down and hear the sound of the tree behind him cracking into countless pieces.
[SURVIVE A BATTLE AGAINST - ANTIBODY #53987 -]
[IT’S THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN-]
And suddenly, the voice in Kurt’s mind fell silent.
