Don't Fear the Reaper: Part 4
Trisha and Scarecrow stood at opposite ends of a stark white room, looking at eachother emotionlessly. Scarecrow was the first to make a move.
Slowly, he began strafing to the left. Trisha noticed and held her fists out, mirroring his strafing except to the right. Scarecrow faked forward, making Trisha jump backwards like a timid child. Instinctively, she leapt at his aggressively, flinging a fist at him. The Skinner stepped out of her leap and gently nudged her shoulder, causing her to plummet off balance! She fell to the floor and looked up at him.
"You're dead," he said. She stood up again and shot her eyes back and forth between his legs and his head. Her eyes finally locked on his face and she swung her leg out at his knees! Scarecrow brought his leg up and met her shin with his foot, kicking her leg back at her. This was followed up by his other leg flying towards her stomach! Trisha gasped and expected serious pain, but felt nothing except a gust of wind hitting her abdominal area. She opened her eyes and looked down to see Scarecrow's heavy boot just inches away from her stomach.
"Two times over," he lowered his boot. "But you did great kid! Tried to trick me up didn't ya? I saw the eyes, got me trying to predict your hits, tried to fake me out with the kick...you're getting better."
Trisha lit up and smiled widely.
"Soon I'll be able to rock you up and down the block won't I?" she said and playfully punched his shoulder. Scarecrow looked at her and then at her fist.
"Was that supposed to be an attack?" he asked, cocking his head.
"It was just a joke babe," she chuckled. Scarecrow looked at her funny. "I forgot my end of the bargain. Shall we?"
"Let's shall," he said and opened the door to the training room, holding it open for Trisha and then following her through.
When they reached Trisha's room, Scarecrow stood awkwardly smack-dab in the middle. He looked as if he had no idea where to move next...something he didn't feel all too often...
Trisha motioned for him to follow her onto the bed. Scarecrow moved one foot unsurely, like he was afraid of what his own reaction would be. He walked over to the bed and sat down.
"You're gonna want to lose the jacket, it'll be a real bother," Trisha smiled and began to pull the rubber jacket from his shoulders. It slid down and he tossed it aside. "Now lay down."
Scarecrow did as Trisha said, lying back against the pillows. Trisha leaned on her elbow and looked down at him.
"Why do you have to wear that? Doesn't it ever get uncomfortable?" she asked, referring to his helmet. Scarecrow shook his head.
"I don't have to wear it. I choose to. It's my face. And no, the guys who lashed it together made sure it can be worn for long periods of time," he said, looking at the ceiling then over to her. "Why do you ask?"
"Just wondering! I was curious, so I asked. Do all of you have to wear one?" she asked quizzically.
"All Skinners? Yes, we do. If we want to be Skinners and not Soldiers. The Soldiers are numbers, we are names...make sense? Skinners are born, Soldiers are grown," Scarecrow said indifferently. Trisha was slightly upset.
"I saw so many of them when we walked throughout the place, they're all just...things?" she asked. Scarecrow nodded.
"Just flesh and orders, no personalities," he said. She looked down in moderate disgust.
"How can you just grow living things? How can your superiors justify the fact that you're denying these creatures lives of their own?" Trisha asked, appalled.
"Easily...they're superior," Scarecrow said and put his hands behind his head. Trisha looked at him, breathing heavily, very shaken.
"Take it off," she ordered. Scarecrow looked over at her.
"I thought you said we weren't getting to that stage until later?" he asked and chuckled lightly. Trisha was unamused.
"No the helmet! Take off the helmet!" she barked. Scarecrow laughed.
"No," he said and stood up. Trisha was actually shocked! She had never once, in her whole experience with him, heard him give a straightforward answer!
"Why not?" she asked angrily.
"Why should I?" he responded childishly.
"Because I need to know!" Trisha yelled.
"Know what?" Scarecrow asked emotionlessly, taken aback by his new friend's anger towards a clearly inoperable situation.
"I need to know...if...I need to know if the man that saved me really is a man...and not a walking husk for orders...please...I need to know," Trisha's eyes began to tear at the corners, and she wiped them on a corner of the blanket. Scarecrow looked at her, the red crosshairs on his eye-panels completely still. He stood motionless, in the center of the room, while Trisha looked at him with wet eyes. A small noise could be heard echo through the halls.
"Skinner Scarecrow, Mother needs you," a voice rang through the white corridors. Scarecrow looked once more at Trisha and then finally spoke.
"No," he said and turned towards the door, leaving his jacket and walking towards Mother's office. Trisha finally broke down, her shoulders heaved and she buried her face in her pillow. She was hysterical, but when she brought her face out of the pillow to breathe, she was smiling widely and crying happily, sobbing out a few soft laughs before finally curling up with her pillow and letting her tears run onto the sheets...
"He's no puppet..." she whispered happily.
Meanwhile, Scarecrow stormed through the halls, upset by his supposed callous treatment of Trisha. "Should I have done it?" he asked himself. "Should I have compromised myself for her?"
Other Soldiers and the occasional Skinner moved to the side when they saw him coming, although this was normal. He reached a double door with two heavily-armed Soldiers standing before it.
"Move," was all he said, deep, guttural, and very not-in-the-mood. The two Soldiers looked at eachother, then stood aside and let the Skinner through. Behind the doors were a large computer screen and multiple males and females of multiple species in white coats tapping at the keyboards.
On the screen was the beautiful face of a mid-thirties female blue Wolf. She was aged, but in the kindest of ways, and time was no enemy of hers. Her fur was light blue, with lines of robin's egg running vertically down her features. When the Skinner entered the room, she smiled at him.
"Darling!" she said happily.
"Mother. What is it?" Scarecrow said unenthusiastically. Her smile faded and a look of motherly concern washed over her.
"What's gotten you all rustled up, dear?" she asked.
"Nothing to be concerned about, Mother dearest. Sleeping when you rang...is all," Scarecrow lied. Mother smiled a cute, closed-eye smile that made her look reminiscent of a Japanese anime character.
"My apologies baby! This is urgent though!" Mother said. Scarecrow laughed.
"That's why ya buzzed me isn't it?" Scarecrow asked sarcastically. Mother smiled again and nodded. "Well, I'm all ears."
"Very well," Mother acknowledged.
A new image filled her screen. It was the picture of a Skinner, her mask insect-like in appearance. Large, beady eyes, multiple pairs of mandibles where her mouth should have been, and a greenish tint to the coloration.
"Mantis. What's happened to her?" Scarecrow asked. Mantis was a good friend of his; they had gone through training together, watched the ones who couldn't make the cut get taken to the "exit", fought together, bled together, and even slept together on more than one occasion. If something had happened to Mantis, this was not the time to tell Scarecrow...
"Her whereabouts are unknown...it's believed that she's gone seditious and left the Family," A voice from behind Scarecrow said. Scarecrow, without turning around, identified the Skinner.
"Infernus. I thought I smelled failure," Scarecrow muttered. A low laugh, laced and dripping with resentment assaulted his eardrums.
"Well Scarecrow, what have I told you about hopping around with alley rats? Or should I say...alley mares?" Infernus said quietly. Scarecrow turned his head so one of his crosshairs landed directly on the other Skinner's head. Infernus' mask was tinted bright red, with sharp teeth etched into the mask and a demonic, skinless face with small, yellow eye-panels.
"You say one more word, and I won't need any more reasons to gut you like I should have in Mogadishu," Scarecrow raged silently. Infernus put his hands up in mock surrender and backed off into the shadows.
"Play nice you two!" Mother interrupted and looked at Scarecrow, annoyed. "Always causing trouble...now then! What Infernus says IS true, Scarecrow. I know you don't want to hear it; Mantis was and still is a fantastic Skinner, that's why we want you to go and find her! We think that maybe you can bring her back to her senses..."
"And if not then I'm the only one who she'll let close enough to make a killing blow, right?" Scarecrow finished her sentence before she even had time to word it properly. Mother said nothing and looked down at the bottom of her screen uncomfortably. "Don't bother, Mother dearest, I've got all the info I need."
Scarecrow turned to walk out the door when Mother called him once more.
"Yes?" he turned around to look at her.
"Why don't you bring your new friend with you? It would be a great opportunity for her to get situated with her new line of business, sound good?" Mother inquired, hoping for a positive response. Scarecrow's shoulders bounced lightly with a quiet, grating laugh.
"Of course, Mother dearest," he said and headed for the door again. "Sounds fine to me..."
Scarecrow pushed through the double doors and turned a white corner down a white hall and out of sight. Mother breathed a heavy sigh.
"All of you, would you leave me for just a moment or two?" she said to her technicians tapping at the keyboards below her. They looked up before either nodding silently or uttering a quiet "yes" or "of course Mother". When they had vacated, Infernus stepped out from the shadows, his yellow eyes glinted in the beams of ceiling light.
"Mother?" he asked. She looked regretful, though of what was yet to be discovered...
"Infernus dear...what will we do about him? When he speaks to Mantis there's sure to be some exchange of information on her part...she's bound to say something!" Mother said worriedly. Infernus held up his hand.
"Calm down, Mother...we both know what has to be done if he embarks on this variant; we both know what's at stake. I want you to reconsider sending me or another Skinner in Scarecrow's place! Scarecrow is too good a warrior to lose and the risks would be enormous if he were to turn renegade! Send me instead, I'll kill Mantis no questions asked and none would be the wiser!" Infernus attempted to sway Mother. She simply chuckled as she attained a rather dark persona about her, in place of her usual cheery demeanor.
"If Mantis was standing in front of you, you wouldn't see her...she was our best stealth agent, still is! Your department is devastation, Scarecrow's department is precision. She would see you coming a mile away and be gone so fast it would make your head spin, my dear...no, this is Scarecrow's mission. To that extent, it is your department alone that can even hope to challenge him...and his little tag-along..." Mother explained in a heavy voice. For some reason, this was a different side of Mother then Infernus had seen before, darker, more malevolent...she sounded cruel...
"I understand Mother...count on me," Infernus said and put his palm over his heart. In an instant, Mother was back to her normal self! Bright and beaming once again!
"Good! Thank you darling, now then, you can return to whatever it was you were doing," Mother said and smiled closed-mouthed. Infernus nodded once and walked out the doors. When he had gone, Mother closed her eyes and began rubbing her temples soothingly.
"These people are the reasons I have headaches..." she muttered quietly and her screen shot to black.