The Grey continued to squirm, their grip iron on the scalpel. The one by the machine froze upon seeing Susette’s eyes land on them, then quickly began moving again. The job had to be completed. No Regulator could tell them no.
That too, seemed to be the thought on the other Greys’ minds, when one lunged with a second scalpel. Bold, for a Grey. They must have been desperate, and the telepathic shrieking continuing, pitched and grating in the Regulator’s heads, confirmed it.
God. Shut up. Lorna’s eye twitched in irritation. They could speak. Yes, so they were panicked. Fine. Panicked people, whether human or Grey, made mistakes. She could work with that.
There—one such mistake. A fourth Grey had frozen perfectly in place the same moment a shimmery field encapsulated both scalpel Greys and vaporvolph. The three began to float within it, and the silvery fluid leaking from Susette’s wound scattered into the air. Right. Greys leaned heavily on their tech, but more so on tech that incorporated their own abilities. (Which seemed to extend past simple telepathy and telekinesis? Unless the machine was controlled by either… A thought for later.)
Dark, calculating eyes flicked between the Greys, Susette, and the Viperan. Susette would be fine; plenty had been done to vaporvolphs without permanent damage in the years they’d been held prisoner on Vampiru. There was nothing lasting the Greys could do. And whatever damage they did to the Viperan or what might be done with this next move—well, that too could be reversed. Hoax would come. She always did. Stubbornness came in handy, when it came to her particular talents.
Risks outweighed the cost, and that was enough.
The power shut-down came hard and fast, before the Greys had time to further react to the Regular’s presence. Any other weapons, least those that she couldn’t remove from the situation, had been caught within the field, as well. Those inside it would feel weight on their shoulders as the field sputtered. Didn’t matter—it was out of commission now, along with any other secret powers they might be inclined to use, and the Viperan’s status appeared unchanged. Whatever machine had been regulating his body wasn’t entirely dependent on Grey abilities, then. Lorna felt an almost smug satisfaction—not professional, but justified, here. The resolution would be about as clean as it came.
Susette would be perhaps worse for the wear after, and, well, she’d accepted the risks of the job when she took it. She’d have dealt with worse in her life, let alone as a monster hunter.
Lorna’s gaze swept past the other Regulator to those Greys outside the field.
“Your powers are down. Your weapons are out of your reach. Release the Viperan. Now.” She raised a brow, waiting for them to speak.
Susette took the attack with the second scalpel as a matter of course. It was better to let them hit their target than to risk a diversion that could loose the one she held or send them slipping into the injured alien on the makeshift operating table. It hurt, but it was fine. She would, of course, live.
Yet the proceeding events undid this cool calculation into hot agony. Being suspended was nothing. A trifling disorientation that she would rectify as soon as she sorted out how--
Then Lorna shut off their powers, Susette hit the ground, and everything hurt.
It wasn’t just the wounds that now didn’t heal, though they burned as if she could sense every vibrating fiber of her being yearning to mend itself. It was the blunt pain of hitting the floor, the sensation of being trapped in a body that did not obey commands properly. When her powers were negated, she became simply meat, flesh and bone and blood. The silver that flowed from her still decayed apart, but now she feared her own body might do the same.
The Greys were panicking, gathering, remembering how to speak out loud. Susette stifled down her own fear and rose to her feet, unsteady like a foal.
“You can’t.” One croaked, obviously unused to using vocal chords. One of them, bigger than the others, came forward and pushed the Viperan-on-wheels out of the way. Susette interposed herself between them and Lorna, teeth grit. Lorna, who didn’t seem at all concerned or conflicted about what she’d done.
This pain was just a moment in time, and would pass. Despite wanting to clutch her wounds and howl, despite the terrifying feeling of blood draining and not replenishing from her human form, she met the large Grey head on, hoping Lorna could manage the rest.
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