Alternia Comics

“Oh, crap. Get in the plane!”

Dr. Law needed no encouragement. He practically flew up the stairs, with Derrick right behind him. The pilot didn’t bother trying to see where the knife-thrower had gone to. He just knew that, with someone that deadly out there somewhere, his window for escape was closing fast.

Derrick got into the plane and turned his body weight against the door to close it as fast as possible. As it slid into place, Derrick heard a metallic *thunk* and felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. He pulled away from the door and looked down at the bloody tip of an oily knife, then at the small would it had left in him.

The blood drained from his face as he thought about the other pilot he found. With panic building in his mind, Derrick realized he was losing feeling throughout his body. He watched the pistol fall from his hands and hit the floor of the plane. He felt, barely, Dr. Law grab and shake him. Just as his vision went black and a creeping pain began to replace the numbness, he heard the thunder of an approaching storm in the distance.

“That’s what you get,” said the assassin as he kicked the door open, “for thinking you can mess with Venym.”

His own blood staining his grim costume, Venym looked down with a contempt-filled smirk at Dr. Law, who was kneeling over the pilot’s body. “I heal pretty quick.”

Dr. Law made a grab for the pistol. Venym flicked his wrist and planted an un-poisoned knife through the scientist’s palm, then let out a shrill cackle at the screaming that followed before he kicked the wounded man away from Derrick. Lightning flashed, lighting up the cabin a few moments before they heard the thunder. He saw the case sitting on the floor, picked up the pistol, and shot both locks off.

“Ah,” he said to Dr. Law, who was clutching his maimed hand. “Moment of truth, now.” He opened the case and took both gel packs, holding one in each hand. “You brought two, huh? Probably a good idea. Never can be too safe.”

As he chuckled at his own cruel jokes, he suddenly got an idea. The poison in Derrick’s body would not have quite killed him, yet, and his boss hadn’t specified how much of the gel to bring back.

With a wicked grin on his young face, Venym straddled the unconscious pilot, whose face was already turning green and whose veins were already darkening. “I’m pretty sure you can still hear me,” he said, then gave Derrick a hard punch across the face. Derrick moaned and sucked in a labored breath. “So that’s for when you hit me.”

Venym took a particularly jagged knife from his belt and stuck it deep into Derrick’s stomach. Derrick gasped and squirmed weakly. Venym stabbed him again and said, “And those are for when you shot me.” His victim whimpered. Venym only laughed. “I wonder if you even know what it was you were sent to deliver.” He cut a small slit in one of the gel packs. “From what it’s supposed to do, my guess is that it’s pretty toxic. Not that it matters, considering what’s pumping through your system right now, but,” he paused to force Derrick’s mouth open, shove the open end of the gel pack inside, and start squeezing, “every little bit helps.”

Derrick coughed and sputtered as the stuff went down into his throat. Lightning flashed in the windows and thunder shook the plane barely a second later. Venym enjoyed the spectacle with a wide, evil grin, chuckling quietly every few seconds. He stopped as he heard a yell like a wild-man from Dr. Law, then looked up just in time to see the doctor’s crazed face before he collided with the sadistic assassin, sending both of them barreling out of the plane to roll down the stairs and onto the wind-swept tarmac.

Venym ended up on bottom. He thrust straight up into Dr. Law’s nose with his palm, breaking the nose and pushing the man up. Venym then grabbed the knife still sticking out of Dr. Law’s hand and jammed it up into the scientist’s chest. Blood sprayed them both as Dr. Law fell to the side. Almost blind with fury, Veynm paid no heed to the lightning flashing repeatedly in the air as he took out a pair of knives and slashed his victim over and over again along his arms, chest, and face.

When he was done, Dr. Law was a twitching, bloody mess beneath him. Venym stood, shaking with adrenaline and subsiding rage. He gave Dr. Law one last kick and spat on him as he turned back to retrieve the unspent gel pack.

Lightning struck the plane. The flash blinded Venym’s green eyes, and the concussive force of the thunder deafened him and knocked him flat. He just lay there for a while, regaining his senses. When he was able, he sat up and looked at the plane, still crackling with leftover electricity. There was something glowing brightly in the open doorway …

… and it was floating …

Derrick’s eyes shot open as every nerve was set on fire, but all he cloud see was bright white light. His body snapped rigid, and he felt light … weightless, in fact. He felt a burning awareness over every inch of his body, at once agonizing and ecstatic. He wondered if he had died, and about whether he had gone to Heaven or Hell.

Slowly, his body relaxed. The pain of his stab-wounds was still there, but he could tell they were no longer bleeding. He moved his head to look around, but it was like pushing against water, or something slightly more resistant. Finally, his eyes adjusted and he saw the inside of the plane around him, though it was all so … bright … as if everything had been painted white. He blinked and noticed that things were returning to their original colors, although it was all bathed in bright light that was coming from under him.

Derrick rolled to one side … or at least he tried … he had the sensation of spinning in place and found himself staring down at the floor of the plane, several feet beneath his prone form and also suffused with the same light.

He slowly began to realize that he was the source of that light …

… and that he was flying!