Descent Into Madness Read online

  Another girl turned and her eyes just about popped out of her head. She smiled and jumped up. She was dressed in black, with artificially black hair, lips, fingernails, and clothing. She was seemingly covered head to toe in piercings. Just about the only color on her was the lettering on her shirt, which read “Midnight: Team Howard.” She was a fan of that vampire vs. werewolf teen romance novel that was all the rage. And Howard was the sexy werewolf that had all the pubescent girls and their mothers drooling.

  She ran right up to him and gasped, “Oh em gee, that is the best wolf costume I've ever seen. But, you got the tail wrong; it’s fluffier than that. The face is also more wolf-like, but I guess that’s harder to do. I like the ears.”

  Bark frowned and let out a sigh. He pointed to his collar and it spoke for him. “I'm not in costume. This is my body.”

  “Oh, so you’re, like, really into this character thing. That's cool. But, I really want to know how you made that suit. It fits so well.” She was reaching out to check the fur.

  Bark gently moved to prevent her from feeling him. “This isn't a suit. This is really me. I'm a student of the UCH.”

  The group gasped, giggled, and gawked all the more. The girl burst out with, “COOL you’re like a real werewolf. That’s sooo cool. You have to come with me to the premier tonight. Hannah will be so jealous. Like, she’ll never get over this. You're just so cute and what a body.” She shamelessly flirted with him.

  Bark had not expected to find anyone drooling over him. He was more prepared for the fear, or the curiosity, but the werewolf fans had not really crossed his mind. “No...uh... thank you. I have to get back to the station soon. I just have a little shopping to take care of. ”

  Two other girls and a boy got up and joined their friend. All three were dressed like the first, black from head to toe with their “team’’ shirts on. One of the girls was looking at his face and blurted, “Do you have fangs?” The other girl asked, “Can you change to look like a human?” The boy piped in, “Do you normally walk around like that, or did you lose your clothes?” The first girl was reaching up for his face, “Can you talk normally?”

  Bark backed up, a little overwhelmed by them, but decided to answer their questions. “I have fangs, I cannot change, this is my uniform, and I cannot talk without the aid of this collar. Please, excuse me.” He pushed his way through them and headed for the store.

  He heard the first girl who approached him, sigh, “I want one,” which only made him roll his eyes and walk even faster.

  Finally, he arrived at the store. He could tell right away that this was a very high end jewelry store that only catered to wealthy clientele.

  When he walked in, he immediately noted the many cases of sparkling stones set in gold, silver, platinum, and other precious metals. There was a candle lit somewhere that made the shop have a rosy scent, which may have been pleasant to the average nose but, as a dog, made Bark cringe. At the moment, there were two shoppers and one attendant. Everyone had their eyes glued on the dog-man who had just entered. The ladies shopping had their mouths agape and the balding, snooty looking attendant had a tiny sneer of disgust as he reached for a phone.

  “Sir, are you lost,” the rather rude-sounding attendant asked Bark.

  Bark shook his head and pointed at a jewelry case. He wanted to just look for a moment, not bother them while they shopped.

  “Excuse me,” the attendant said, walking over to Bark. He was standing on the other side of a cabinet, simply glaring at Bark. “Can I help – oh, my Lord. That isn’t a costume,” the man stated bluntly, having only just realized that this person was, in fact, what he appeared to be.

  Bark frowned and shook his head. “I want to shop.”

  The man looked at the collar and stepped back. “Uh….I…well…what can I do for you?” His rudeness had been vanquished by a newfound fear.

  Bark let out a sigh and decided to just get this over with quickly. “I want to see sapphire engagement rings.”

  “Sa-sapphire engagement rings. Uh…we…don’t carry those,” he lied.

  Bark frowned and looked over at another case. “Aren’t these the rings?” Bark slid down the glass and looked into a case full of expensive platinum rings with beautiful blue stones set on the top.

  The attendant followed him, all while eyeing the security alarm button. The two other customers had left by now, as quickly as they could. “Uh, sir…those are…uh…you see…we have to do a credit check to let you look at those.”

  “Is there a problem?” The store owner came out, a large man with a well-fed body and a snappy suit. His eyes bugged out and he stepped back at the sight of Bark. “Oh, I see,” He huffed, as if just seeing Bark answered a question.

  Bark pointed at the ring dead center of the case. “I would like to see that one, please.”

  The attendant gulped and restated, “We have to run a credit check before I can show you anything from this case.”

  Bark frowned, but complied. “What do you need from me?”

  “A credit card would do.” The man’s voice was getting drier and drier, as if all the moisture was fleeing his body.

  Bark opened his wallet and produced the card that The General had given him. The man’s hand shook so hard that he couldn’t seem to grab it.

  Bark scoffed, which made the man’s whole body jerk. He set the card down and then stated plainly, “I'm not here to steal anything or hurt anyone. I just want to buy a ring.”

  The man took the card and nearly ran to the back where they did all this kind of work. The owner, a little braver than his attendant, walked over to Bark. “Are you sure you want to see that ring? It's valued at 4,000 dollars. Mike’s Pawn down the street might have something more your speed.” His tone was less fearful and more snobby.

  Bark cleared his throat. “My girlfriend loves sapphires and wants a sapphire engagement ring. Now, if you cannot sell me one, then I'll have to find one somewhere else.”

  The owner, wanting to rid himself of this man, nodded. “Then, perhaps –”

  “Mr. Cunningham!” The attendant came running back out with a sheet of paper and Bark’s bank card.

  The owner took the paper and calmly examined it. “I see. Thank you, Hank. I'll take care of this one.”

  Bark smirked. “Now may I look at your rings?”

  The owner smiled, perhaps the first smile Bark had seen in this shop. “I think I have something that would interest you more.” The owner walked Bark to the front of the store and then pushed aside a plant that hid a wall safe. He put in the code and opened the safe to retrieve a tray of rings. “These are estate rings, some of the finest in all of Knoxville. And this one, my boy, is the most beautiful sapphire that I've seen in many years.” He plucked out a platinum ring with an emerald cut, cornflower blue sapphire. The platinum was designed with lattice work that was as elegant as the stone itself.

  Bark slowly took the ring from the man and looked at it. “This is perfect.”

  The owner set down the tray and explained, “That is an antique from the nineteenth century. The work is all hand done, and the ring itself is completely original. You will not find another like it anywhere.”

  Bark set the ring down and pulled a small gold band from inside his wallet. It was a ring that he had “borrowed” from Snow’s room while she wasn’t looking. He knew that there was only one last detail that would make this the ring of his choice. He held the rings up together. They matched. It would fit her. “I’ll take it.”

  The owner took the ring from his hand and had his attendant put the case away. Then he took Bark’s card and proceeded to make the sale. It was not every day that a person walks in and drops eighteen thousand dollars on a ring, but this particular customer had the money to spend.

  The scared attendant looked at Bark, with a little fear still in his eyes. “Uh…can I help you with anything else?”

  Just then, the little bell on the door rang. Bark shook h
is head with a smile. “No, you can help the next customer.”

  The attendant was relieved at that notion and went around the cases to greet whoever came in.

  “Oh, good heavens! What is that,” the shrill voice of an older woman shrieked from behind Bark.

  Bark turned around to respond to that, having had enough of the attitude. But, he was stopped by two sights. The wealthy jewelry shopper had a wolf skin stole around her neck and, worst of all, she had a cat cradled in her arms. Bark was disgusted to see the wolf skin, but he was even more disgusted to see the cat…and he wasn’t sure why.

  The cat’s hackles raised and it showed all of its teeth. With a spitting hiss, it defended its owner. Bark could not control himself; he responded to the cat’s hiss with a series of loud barks. He even growled and had to use every ounce of control not to leap into attacking the poor creature.

  The woman shrieked, “OH MY, DON’T HURT MY FLUFFY!” She held her cat even closer to herself and backed up against a case of jewelry to get away from the strange man.

  “What's going on out here?!” The owner returned, hearing the cacophony of barks, hisses, and yells.

  Bark backed up and covered his mouth with his hands. He had no idea why he was barking like this. He looked at the owner with his hands still over his mouth, and his collar stated, “I'm sorry. I…I will be going now.”

  “Yes, I think you should. Here is your purchase.” The owner handed Bark the small box with the ring, a receipt, and the bank card.

  Bark didn’t say anything else, or bark anything else for that matter. He ran out of the store and pressed his back against the brick wall. He slowly opened his mouth and took a few breaths. The barking had stopped, but he knew that something was the matter. He was acting more and more like a dog. His instincts were kicking in and he didn’t know why. Could he still be mutating? Could the experiment that changed him still be changing him? What could this mean? Inside the shop, he heard the woman with the cat state, “You should call the pound and have them track that thing down.” He was certain that the owner would do no such thing, but a part of him agreed with her. And that scared the hell out of him.

  His communicator announced an incoming call with a series of beeps.

  Bark opened his wallet and found a small, card-shaped device that was used for communicating with the shuttle service. He turned it on and said, “This is Bark. Where are you?”

  The shuttle pilot came through loud and clear. “I'll be landing in the parking lot of the shopping center that I have tracked you to. Please come to the far end where there aren’t any cars. The shuttle is in class one cloaking, and I'm under orders not to lower the cloak.”

  Bark pressed the respond button. “I understand. Don’t worry, I'll hear you coming.”

  With that, Bark walked further down the strip mall, where there were several empty shops. The parking lot over here was devoid of cars and made a good landing zone for the small shuttles. With a mighty breeze, the shuttle landed and Bark found the open door in the middle of the air. He entered and was lifted back to the UCH.

  Chapter 7: Unsolved Mysteries

  “Good afternoon, this is Sherri Clip for WBIR Knoxville channel 10. This is the scene on Neyland Drive this afternoon. Henley Street Bridge has been destroyed, Neyland Drive is damaged, two boats were sunk, and seven people were killed. The identity of the attacker is still unknown. Witnesses claim to have seen an armored individual attacking three others at the time of the incident. The supernormal that caused this damage is still unknown.” The reporter stepped aside to show the shredded concrete bridge, once an icon of the Knoxville community, now mostly residing at the bottom of the Tennessee River.

  The General paused the view screen at the front of the meeting room, the image of the destroyed bridge frozen there for everyone to see. He paced back and forth for a moment, quietly considering his words. Right now, Snow, Spark, Josiah, and Dr. Ogle were around the table, Dr. Ogle still only a head sitting in his box designed to keep him alive.

  “Tell me something. How is it that a simple student mission to escort a person to the station resulted in this?” He was calm, but there was underlying anger in his voice.

  Spark, the official instructor on this mission, replied. “We really had no other option. We were attacked as soon as we reached Knoxville airspace.”

  Dr. Ogle spoke up. “Uh, I can attest to the fact that they were only defending themselves. That armor is malfunctioning. This is why I brought…them…here.” He could see that The General was glaring at him for speaking out of turn.

  Josiah had heard enough. “General, what happened was out of everyone’s control. There's no need to get upset with them. We don’t know what could've happened had they not fought that armor. If the bridge is any indication, it's capable of doing considerable damage.”

  The General sat down with a heavy sigh. “We have a hard enough time trying to keep a good image in front of the media. The civilians hardly accept us, the government wants to sanction us, and the media loves roasting us at every turn. When one of our fights takes out a city’s beloved landmark, it can only hurt us.”

  Snow spoke up. “Right now, we cannot worry about reputation. If that armor decides to go on a rampage, or attack civilians, the results could be much, much worse than just a destroyed bridge.”

  The General looked right at Dr. Ogle. “Yes. How is it that your creation is causing such havoc?”

  Dr. Ogle cleared his throat and replied, “As I explained to Mr. Spark, the computer in the armor has the ability to operate the body independently of my control. I believe that the defense protocols have been activated and the system has shorted somewhere. It perceives any and all supernormal activity as a threat to the city.”

  Spark added, “It's just as I told you before, General, if we don’t send any more of our heroes down there before we have a solution, it should remain dormant.”

  “Well,” Dr. Ogle continued, “That's a probable solution for the moment. I cannot be completely certain that it won’t change its targets again. Even though I don’t know what's wrong with it, my theories are supported by the facts thus far. But, we can’t say for certain it won’t start attacking for some other reason.”

  “I thought you said its sensors would only track supernormal human energy,” Spark said.

  Dr. Ogle frowned. “That's true. But, my programming wasn't designed to track supernormals who weren't posing a considerable threat. You weren't a threat and it attacked you. Therefore, we cannot be completely certain that the programming will act within our logical assumptions.”

  “Huh?” Spark looked at Josiah for a translation.

  Josiah answered, “It isn’t behaving normally. We really cannot say for certain that it won’t suddenly attack something else it perceives as a threat.”

  Dr. Ogle looked at Josiah. “That’s what I said.”

  “So, we blow it up with a ray. Sounds good to me,” Spark exclaimed.

  Dr. Ogle took offense to that. “Hey! That’s my body. At least that's the body I cloned to attach my head to.”

  Snow grimaced. “There is a human body inside that robot?”

  William rolled his eyes. “The armor is just over the body.”

  Spark frowned. “So you cloned a regular human body and gave it a suit of armor?”

  “In a way. The body is stronger and sturdier than a standard human body. Basically, it can withstand the abuse of being a superhero. The armor is what gives it its super powers. Strength, speed, regeneration, energy weapons, that's all in the armor. But, without a proper body inside the armor, it would just be a pile of technology lying around.”

  “Creepy,” Snow muttered under her breath.

  “Alright,” The General said, ignoring Snow’s comment. “I think we understand. We need to put a stop to this thing, and we need to do it fast. Spark, would you escort Dr. Ogle to the science labs? Dr. Ogle, I'll send Josiah there shortly. You'll work with him on a way to
neutralize this problem.”

  Spark got up and looked at the head in a box. With a grossed out sneer, he picked up the box and carried the doctor out of the meeting room.

  Once the doors shut, The General looked at Josiah. “So, can we trust him?”

  Josiah looked back at the door, then at The General. “I haven't done an intense scan of his mind yet. But, I haven’t detected any lies from him. Everything he said here was the truth in his mind.”

  Snow shivered in disgust. “I don’t know. He's just creepy. Anyone who cuts off his own head for some kind of experimentation strikes me as a mad scientist.”

  Josiah nodded. “Normally, you’d be right. But, even though we haven’t been in contact for some time, I've known that man for years. Doing something like this, creating a super suit and a cloned body for his head, that is...strange. But, I also know that he has always wanted to fix himself, to get out of the chair and live a normal life. So, in a way, I can believe this.”

  The General was quiet for a long time. He looked down at the reports that Spark and Snow turned in to him about the mission. “Keep an eye on him and make sure you have control of every detail of this mission. If he does turn out to be a villain I don’t want to give him an opportunity to strike. But, as it stands, he's helping and he knows more about this armored body than any of us. So, we have to accept his help in stopping this.”

  Josiah got up to leave. “I was planning on keeping a close eye on him. I'll make sure we find a way to stop this menace.”

  The General stopped Josiah before he left the room. “One more thing. We're going to stop this threat one way or another. He must be aware that my plan is for that thing to be destroyed. If we can save it and help him fix it, that would be nice, but our first priority is the safety of the people.”

  Josiah responded with a nod of agreement and walked out.

  Snow smiled and stood. “I guess I'll go and wait for Bark to return. Will you need a mission report from him as well?”

  The General nodded. “Of course. This is still a graded mission.”