Chereads / Grafted / Chapter 16 - Nowhere To Go

Chapter 16 - Nowhere To Go

The sound of metal pounding together echoes off the door, the entire gang is alerted by this.

"I'll get this one." Damian puts on his sleeves and approaches the door.

Opening the peek hole he comes face to face with a giant robot. Immediately it notices Damian's Oni eye and attacks. Its fist busts through the door sending Damian into a wall. As the machine moves into the room the rest of the gang aside from Grant spring into action. Jason charges into it, however even with his incredible strength the machine is unmoving. It has no reaction to Amber's fire, Natalie's ice, nor Henry's lightning. It clubs Jason on his head with its massive arms. Its arm turns into a huge blade, hanging above Jason. Damian blitzes out of his crater and shreds the blade with his claws. The machine notices Grant just standing around.

"I am D-142, my mission is to eradicate all monsters. You will assist me." The giant robot clothes lines Damian through another wall.

Grant steps up next to the hulk of metal.

"Grant." Henry looks on in disbelief.

Grant then quickly turns on the machine, punching through its abdomen.

"How could you- slay your own kin?" The machine crumbles as Grant blasts it in two.

"You D models all think the same, serve the humans, kill the monsters, and work with other robots. The world has changed since then, we no longer need you D models." Grant rips the head off.

"Your allegiance is with monsters, you are no different." The eye lense lights up as it sends a message out.

Grant smashes the head, finishing off the machine.

"This place is no longer safe." He turns to the rest of the group, with an injured Jason and Damian.

Damian wakes up on a familiar soft bed, he's fully dressed in a different set of clothes and all his items are neatly packed in two bags at the side of the bed. Bandages cover his arms, they were scratched up bad from ruble when he smashed through two walls. Thinking about it he has a sense of danger, but no memory as to why.

The door in front of Damian explodes as a man with military grade weapons and armor crashes to the ground.

"Damian, the others are in the back!" Joson yells out to him as he tears up the floor and uses it as a shield against gun fire.

Understanding the tense situation he's in, he snatches the bags and sprints out of the room.

"There's another one running away!" A soldier calls out to the others.

Three of them split off and Chase Damian. Jason manages to take one out by throwing a chunk of the floor at them. The other two follow Damian through a series of rooms. They open a door and Damian is nowhere to be seen, attempting to turn on the light results in nothing.

"Keep your eyes peeled." They turn on the flashlights attached to their guns and begin scanning the room.

The eerie silence and darkness fills the soldiers with uncertainty. One sees movement out the corner of his eye, he immediately turns directly to it and shoots.

"An orange?" He walks towards the fruit.

Damian lunges out tackling the still searching soldier. By the time the other could turn around his partner already has a hole in his chest. He spins around looking in every corner, until he sees Damian directly in front of him. Firing his gun is useless, Damian's indestructible fur prevents him from getting injured. His oni nature takes over, his ferocious eyes pierce the soldier's mask, his wicked smile sends chills down his spine. The Oni slits the man's throat. Damian gains control over his body once again, noticing the carnage, he clutches his head.

"What just happened? These people are dead." Damian watches the corpses for a moment. "Amber said it was only for us, but I can't live with myself if I take a human life." Damian pulls out a vial of ash and lit embers.

He sets the ash in their wounds and they immediately begin to heal. After seconds they start to breathe again. Damian has a sigh of relief before continuing down the path towards the others.

As Damian opens the final door he faces Henry, Grant, and Natalie who all point their arms with attacks prepared.

"Oh Damian, thank goodness." They lower their arms and Grant grabs hold of Damian.

"Glad you could make it, we tried to get to you, but the room was way too close to the attack point." Natalie leans her head against a wall.

"Okay, where's Amber?" Damian sits down on the cold floor.

"She's the fastest member, so we gave her a portal stone and told her to get far away from here." Henry holds up the other portal stone.

"Perfect, now we just need to wait for Jason." Damian stretches his arms.

The others remain silent for a moment until Henry clears his throat.

"Uh Damian, Jason talked to us. He said he's been feeling worthless after the deaths of Cade and Alex. He felt great pain, like a father who loses his son. He asked us for when the moment arises he wants to die protecting us, because we're all family to him." Henry stares at the floor as Damian jolts to attention.

When Damian looks away, in the direction Jason is currently fighting a swarm of soldiers, Henry lays a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave."

"Hopefully you've gotten out already." Jason gazes behind himself as bullet holes riddle the stone barrier.

He takes a deep breath then bursts through the rock, as he charges the squad of soldiers. His massive fist begins to grow in size, as the special phaser bullets bounce off it. He scatters the soldiers. The front five lay unconscious, but ten more enter the room to replace them. Jason screams in agony, not from the bullets, but rather from something primal taking over. The rest of his skin becomes the same unsaturated blue that were his arms, his face elongates as his jaw grows, and despite his already massive stature, his size doubles. If there is any humanity left, it lays dormant. Equipping better gear the soldiers are still focused on taking him down, however their stun batons and phaser bullets do nothing against him. Steel knives are no use either, since now they can barely pierce his rough skin, and then his insane healing removes any sign of an injury. He can no longer hold back, as what used to be Jason has turned into a horrific beast that seeks nothing but blood. Using a laser sword one of the soldiers discovered Jason can't heal from every wound. Using laser swords the soldiers slowly weaken him, first with shallow cuts, but eventually slicing off his limbs. Twelve soldiers are left alive by the end of the fight out of a total of sixty-five. One soldier finishes off Jason, but like igniting natural gas, he explodes in a fiery inferno, eleven soldiers return home empty-handed.