Galatea 2 - Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21: INTERVENTION

The incessant hum of fluorescent lights seemed ever so much more present. Tensions were high, mild annoyances felt like end-of-the-world scenarios. Both Audrey and Brian’s faces were dripping with sweat. Being threatened at gunpoint was bad enough, but now they were standing before the mouth of the apex predator, one that used camouflage to hide the true dangers within its jowls.

“Here it is, just as promised.”

As if showing off a painting at a museum, A twist of the hand from Brian presented the empty wall before them.

“You don’t seriously expect us to believe that behind this supposedly fake wall there’s an elevator that could take you to a secret lab under the school that no one knew about?” L’Enfant shot back, an unimpressed scowl on his face. “One even our scanners couldn’t detect?”

Brian shrugged. “I can’t speak to the efficacy of your scanners, but it’s not like the professor wanted this to be found. As far as I know, only four people in the world know of the location’s existence, and you’ve got two of them right here!”

Audrey said nothing.

Eager to pull the heat off of himself, Brian activated the elevator, the wall shifting away seamlessly to reveal it, just as he had promised.

A brief silence.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” the general roared. “You’re already on borrowed time here, get your asses down in that lab!”

“Okay! Okay! Jeez!” Brian timidly spoke, holding his hands up to his head defensively as he shrunk slightly. Audrey wasn’t phased by L’Enfant’s threats—her expression almost bored as she waltzed into the elevator behind her startled boyfriend. Only when the elevators fully closed did Audrey finally break her vow of silence.

“I’m gonna fucking kill that general guy.”

“Look, we won’t have to kill anyone if we can get Vanessa out of this mess and then pin it all on Giles!” Brian assured. But Audrey’s enhanced hearing could detect his heart rate skyrocketing. She couldn’t tell if he was saying it to comfort her or to comfort himself. Without warning, she pulled him into her comforting grasp. Now taller than he, Brian easily sunk into her shoulder, shivering as he fought back tears.

“I-I don’t want this. I just wanted a job that could cover tuition costs! How did it all lead to this!?” Brian lamented into his girlfriend’s impossibly toned shoulder.”

“Don’t worry, babe. I’ll find a way out of this. You’ve already done so much for me, the least I could do is ensure that the two of us make it out of this horrible situation alive and together.”

“Together? Perhaps. Alive? I wouldn’t be so sure.”

That was Vanessa’s voice. Unmistakably so. But she wasn’t in the elevator with them. If anything, it sounded like her voice was inside both of their heads. Confused, they didn’t know where to look but at each other, the worried looks on each of their faces confirming that they could not have been individually hallucinating.

The elevator doors opened to the lab, but the surrounding environment was the least of their worries compared to the familiar woman floating a whole meter above it all. Her blank, thousand-yard stare like a noblewoman looking down upon the peasant class.

“Vanessa? What’s… ugh…” that was all Brian could muster as a response, his mind becoming cluttered with Vanessa’s noise. Audrey managed to resist the overwhelming brain chaos, taking tedious yet purposeful steps towards Vanessa, as if trudging through invisible sludge. The blonde’s face was scrunched into a scowl, her fists shaking with anticipation.

But a steady hand from Brian gripping her wrist stopped Audrey. She looked back, expression turned sorrowful as she witnessed Brian’s face twisted in pain, yet still putting the last of his energy into preventing Audrey from harming who was once her best friend.

“Alright, my love, that should be enough mind-melting for one day,” came the voice of Kevin Giles, waltzing into view with an overconfident swagger in his step. “They clearly weren’t prepared for what you’re now capable of.”

“Giles! What the hell did you do to her?” Brian asked, noting how lifeless she seemed behind the radiant green of her eyes.

“You two like her?” The professor continued, trailing his hand along her sinuous calf like Vanessa was a prized stallion or a fancy car. “At first, I wasn’t crazy about these superpowers she had, but now I’m starting to realize just how nice they are when your loyal Galatea is the one wielding them.”

“So you have been mind controlling her!” Audrey shouted, enraged. “All those mean things she said to me, you made her say them!”

The professor chuckled. “Oh no, l had no hand in that. It wasn’t until rather recently that I graciously took control over such a destructive mind. If anything, you might prefer her this way. A snap of my fingers and she could return to the nice, loving friend you always had. All that pesky free will just gets in the way when you give an untamed spirit access to powers beyond what a mortal deserves.”

Now it was Brian’s turn to shout. “Professor, you sound insane! Whatever happened to creating this virus for the betterment of humanity? To save us from the brink of our own flawed nature?”

“I had an epiphany recently, actually… One where I realized I was just telling myself that to hide from what I truly wanted—a Galatea!” his voice became louder, grander. “I’m sick of pretending that I, too, don’t deserve what I want! It’s every man for himself out there, Brian.” He gestured to the ceiling, clearly referring to the military men that were searching for him up there. “They won’t let me be happy, so I won’t give them what they want.”

Audrey charged at Giles, but Vanessa was faster. The black haired woman zipped over, sweeping the blonde up by the collar and tossing her back where she started. Audrey athletically landed without injury, but that didn’t make her any less furious.

“You still wish to stop me? You’re just like everyone else,” Giles lamented.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t give a shit about any of that.” Audrey spoke, a powerful energy in her voice. “I just want Vanessa back. I’d rather have her be a bitch to me for the rest of her life than be your mind-controlled slave, Kevin.”

The professor’s expression soured, a low growl emanating from his clenched teeth. “She is NOT my mind controlled slave!”

Vanessa then acted out his anger, delivering a sweeping kick to whoever was in range. Before Brian could take the brunt of it, Audrey leaped in front of the attack, grunting in pain as Vanessa’s strike dealt brutal damage to her ribs.

“Vanessa… please. It’s us! Your friends!” Brian pleaded, imploring the black-haired bombshell to cease her assault.

"I'm not Vanessa. I'm Galatea," she replied, her verdant eyes still glazed over as she floated casually above her two former friends, preparing to deliver another devastating attack.

“Ugh, urk…” Audrey moaned, pausing pulling herself up off the ground to cough into her fist. “For such a powerful guy who deserves everything, you sure are letting your woman do all the work!”

If Giles wasn’t pissed before, he certainly was now.

“Oh, is that so? Well, if you want me to kill you myself, I’ll be happy to oblige that request.” He called off Vanessa with a hand-wave, letting her float in midair like a retired puppet. With a single hand motion, Kevin tore off three layers worth of clothing on his torso, exposing his sculpted musculature that far exceeded anything on Audrey’s body. “Well? Shall we dance like the olympians?”

Though already wounded and equipped with what might as well have been a beta version of Vanessa and Kevin’s viruses, Audrey didn’t back down from the offer. She stood up tall, ready to unleash her full fury into this bastard who had taken over her life for the worse. She looked back to Brian, but he seemed to have little reservations about wanting to see Giles get his face pounded in.

“I hope you haven’t forgotten the time I picked you up by the neck. Pretty sure you had that same wimpy virus in you back then too,” Audrey taunted, yet the professor was not phased.

“Ah yes, but that was weeks ago. You may have had that virus improving you for longer overall, but mine can do so much more with less.”

The ensuing clash proved to be far more equal than either party had intended, with both Audrey and Kevin trading blow after blow as clothes were torn, faces were bruised and knuckles were bloodied. There was just one problem—Audrey wasn’t exactly much of a fighter. Sure, she had effortlessly disposed of Patton Robinson prior, but he was like a gnat flying around her head compared to the threat Giles posed.

The professor, while a lab rat in his own right, possessed far more experience when it came to the art of fighting. He had simply been around for longer. Audrey didn’t know where the pressure points were that one could strike on the body to change the tide of a fight, but Kevin did.

Her mind rapidly switched through scenarios, dealing with his attacks blow by blow like a high-octane kung fu movie come to life. Despite this, her advantage was fledging, Giles pushing her onto the ground and not letting her get back up. While Audrey could think several steps ahead, plans constantly appearing in her mind with every given situation, so too were the plans in Kevin’s own mind. Her detailed hypotheticals were being scrapped before she could even get past step one. She was simply becoming overwhelmed.

Audrey’s was like a rolodex, but Giles’ was like a digital contact list, simply more efficient at the end of the day…

…but Vanessa’s was the equivalent of photographic memory.

Right before Kevin could unleash the final blow, Vanessa’s hand wrapped firmly around his wrist. Her whole body was shaking, an internal debate clearly raging within her midair form, only able to act upon the singular action of restraining one of Giles’ arms.

“Don’t… hurt… Aud…” her trembling lips mustered, a shifting voice that seemed long forgotten surfacing itself for one last stand against her tormentor.

But despite how slapdash her efforts seemed, they were undoubtedly effective. Kevin couldn’t pull himself from her grasp, no matter how much he shouted and struggled, his arm wouldn’t budge from the trembling arm of his Galatea, even as her center of gravity remained floating in the air.

“Nessy! Let me go! Let. Me. Go! Let… Me… G—AAUGH!”

A loud crack echoed throughout the lab. Giles had tried so hard to escape her grasp that his arm broke. Now bent at an unnatural angle, pangs of pain shooting throughout his body from the spot caused his wobbling knees to collapse. Only then did Vanessa let go of Kevin like he had asked.

Now enraged, Giles took out his anger on that which had wronged him—his Galatea. Vanessa didn’t even brace herself, she didn’t need to, his good fist crashed into her abs without much fanfare. It took a moment for the professor’s fury-addled brain to register the pain that lanced into him from his fist, mirroring the agony of the other side of his body.

“My Galatea… kill that bitch!” was all he could pathetically muster from the floor.

The brief window of sanity had escaped Vanessa, now more receptive to her Pygmalion’s demands. “With pleasure, my dear,” she replied in a sing-songy voice. But before she could turn to carry out his demands upon the helpless Audrey, Vanessa gripped her temple in pain.

While everyone had been fighting, Brian found the failsafe knob that had given Giles control over Vanessa, wasting no time disabling it entirely after undoing its effects, before promptly snapping the laptop in half for good measure. Vanessa fell from the sky, landing atop Giles’ broken arm, which only made his screams of agony even more intense.

Vanessa rubbed her pounding forehead in distress, pulling herself up from the ground. She wasted no time turning around and kicking Giles in the ribs, both halves of his body lurching forward from the contact point as consciousness began to escape him.

“Fucking asshole,” she spat through gritted teeth. “I don’t want to be your stupid Galatea anymore.”

Another kick to the torso for good measure. Giles stopped moving.

“Oh Ness, you came back around just when I needed you the most! God, it’s so good to have you back!” Audrey exclaimed, pulling Vanessa in for a hug.

“Um, what the fuck are you doing, wannabe?” Vanessa questioned with a sculpted eyebrow, easily freeing herself from Audrey’s grasp.

“Oh, come on, Vanessa!” Brian lamented, rolling his eyes. “We freed you of Giles’ mind control, the least you could do is thank us.”

“Thaaaaank you,” she said in such a way it teetered on sarcasm. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off now. I’ve got better things to do with my time and powers.”

Audrey was left speechless as who she, for the briefest of moments considered a friend again, sashayed away. For all of his insane ramblings, Giles had been right about one thing—Vanessa becoming the way she did was not all the professor’s doing. She called the elevator, but it wasn’t empty when it arrived. A clown car’s worth of military troops poured into the lab, pointing gun barrels at everyone down there, unconscious or otherwise.

“Alright boys, take ‘em away. Our job here is done, Giles and his clique have been apprehended,” came General L’Enfant after squeezing his way out of the tiny elevator. “Take all four of them down to the base for questioning.”

“H-hey! No fair! You guys promised you’d let us off if we showed you the lab!” Brian exclaimed. Immediately, that brought laughter to some of the nearby men.

“Do you see that promise written in the form of a plea deal, hmm?” L’Enfant remarked, a familiar shit eating grin growing upon his face. “C’mon son, you should know by now that the military never honors deals, much less ones made by puny college students with no leverage.”

Military men placed reinforced cuffs on Brian, Audrey, Kevin—amidst the agony of his brutalized body—and Vanessa. L’Enfant puffed his chest out proudly. “Now, get comfy, because you all are coming with me.”