If Eye Stay Part 2
rating: +5+x

"Come in," Edward Deny said dejectedly.

Dr. Asclepius ran into his office. He laid his hands on his knees and took a moment to catch his breath.

"What's with you?" Dr. Deny asked as he sipped from his coffee.

"Martin," he gasped, "Dr. Martin Caduceus escaped."

"What!?" Dr. Deny spat his coffee and asked angrily.

"He had a scalpel," Dr. Asclepius said fearfully, "Hidden well in his underwear. He asked the guards if he could use the restroom, and he took it out."

"And?!" Dr. Deny asked, shocked with anger.

"I came in response to screaming," Asclepius panted, "There was no guard left but slit throats."

Dr. Deny's fist came upon the table like the hammer of revolution. "For goddamn heaven's sake," he ranted, "They were armed guards trained to restrain invasive surgeons for ten fucking years! And you are telling me they got killed and Cad ran?"

"Yes, I am afraid," Dr. Asclepius responded. "He also left a note stabbed into your photograph on the wall with the scalpel. It says…" Dr. Asclepius was interrupted as Dr. Edward Deny grabbed the note from his hand.

"Let Quasi go or invasive dissection," Dr. Deny muttered. He crumpled the paper into a ball and launched it into his wastebasket. "That bastard…"

"Since you are not letting QUAESITOR go, and knowing him for more than four years…" Dr. Asclepius suggested.

"I know, I know. I know what to do," Dr. Deny interrupted him again, "Prepare."


Martin raced down the hallways as he dartgunned various asses. He was all the way into the arsenal of the site.

Martin Caduceus kicked opened the vault door and gunned down more guards. He waltzed into the dartgun section and replenished his dartgun ammunition.

"Once I donate that Deny bastard's ass to science," Martin whispered, "I am going to spend rest of my life with you, QUAESITOR." He loaded his dartgun, and put on a full strike team combat armor. Martin started to leave the arsenal vault.

"Wait," he said as he saw something. He went back inside, and took the tin of mints from the fallen guard.

Martin took slow strides down the dim hallway. He ducked behind a trash bin as a defense team passed an intersecting hallway ahead. Martin rose up slowly and stepped near the metal ladder leading to the air vent. Slowly, he reached to top and unscrewed the screws to lid with a scalpel. Martin pushed the lid aside in the vent and proceeded to crawl in.

Dr. Caduceus shifted forward slowly, attempting to be as silent as he can. Martin inched forward towards the hallway Dr. Deny's office is in. He arrived at a vent filter and looked down. No guards. Okay. Martin moved on, until he reached a turn. Dr. Caduceus painstakingly shifted his posterior around, and squeezed into a smaller passage. He crawled forward and a bloodcurdling metal detector alarm sounded.


"How is the preparation?" Dr. Asclepius asked.

"I don't need your help," Dr. Deny said. He made a mental list. Six strike teams around his office, check. One naval strike team guarding his office restroom, check. Temporal metal detectors installed on top of doors, check. Full site video surveillance, check. One elite strike team guarding the windows of his office, check. Six bodyguards surrounding him, check.

Dr. Deny reached for his drawer. If all else fails, which could be possible, he would still have his pistol at hand. He took out his Lucky Luger, a World War II era pistol he stole from his local history museum when he was eight years old.

The metal detector sounded.

Everyone tensed.

All six strike teams rose their machine guns and pointed at the door. Edward's bodyguards took out their pistols. Dr. Deny gripped his Luck Luger.

"Um, sir…" Dr. Asclepius whispered.

"Shh.." Dr. Deny responded.

"Screw this," shouted a strike team commander, "Open fire!"

All six teams opened fire, and a constant chain of firecracker sounds was set off around the office. Dr. Deny held his ears as thousands of bullets flew to the door faster than the speed of sound, piercing the door into Swiss Cheese. The firing continued on, and the room was vibrating with gunshots. Finally, the gunfire stopped as everyone was out of ammunition.

“Reload!” shouted the commander.

“Cease fire, goddammit!” Dr. Deny yelled. It was probably enough. He ordered a bodyguard to open the hole-filled door. No one was behind it, except several unlucky strike team members down the hallway whose bodies were turned into CI roadkill.

“Damn,” Dr. Deny uttered. Cad was obviously absent. If the metal detector wasn't destroyed during the Swiss cheese transformation process, he could have still located him.

Edward suddenly felt a feeling of anxiety in his gut. He felt that Cad is close to foiling his plan.

"You, bring all six strike teams to the southeastern storage section of the site, where QUAESITOR is," Dr. Deny ordered to Asclepius, "This isn't going to end soon. But it has to. I'm afraid I am must do this."

"What?" Asclepius asked.

Dr. Deny chuckled. "You'll see."


Cad let out slowly a breath of relief. His ears were still ringing from the racket. He inched backwards. Dr. Deny is definitely off-dart-limits now, he thought. He should go find Quasi first.

"You, bring all six strike teams to the southeastern storage section of the site, where QUAESITOR is," Dr. Deny's voice said below Martin, "This isn't going to end soon. But it has to. I'm afraid I am must do this."

Well, that was convenient. Martin crawled backwards, painfully turned himself around, and set off to find where Quasi was.


Martin ambushed the small defense team.

He literally dropped down on a guard, neutralizing him on site. He fired off darts at three other guards before they could react to his arrival.

"F-f-freeze!" a guard with a pistol in hand shouted, "O-or I will f-fire!"

Martin threw his last scalpel into his abdomen. The guard collapsed.

Martin had never eliminated so many guards before. Of course, luckily this was a rather small facility in Canada. If he was back in Base Four, he would have been nailed through by bullets much earlier.

Martin is now at the storage site. It was enormous for a small site. Tons of shelves and boxes filled the halls, and they seemed endless. But he didn't see Quasi…

The door on the opposite side of the storage section slammed open, and strike team members surged in like a torrent. Out came last was a familiar figure.

Martin raised his eyebrow. What the hell was Asclepius doing here?

Martin ducked behind a plastic box labeled Type IV NR Drugs. He counted the people there in combat armor. At least thirty. How the fuck did that came to be?

Martin looked around for Quasi. She wasn't in this hall.

Martin got up and ran across the hall he was in. He kept running down the wide aisle and turned as he heard machine gunfire and footsteps. He raced into another hallway and dartgunned down two guards located in the proximity.

Dammit. Martin looked around. Where was Quasi? Martin looked around.

Martin grabbed the nearest object next to him. A smoke grenade. How convenient.

Martin poked his head out from the shelf, and immediately shrunk back as numerous bullets flew past him. He reached out again and launched the smoke grenade out.

"Watch out, grenade!" strike team members shouted. Cad turned around. Suddenly his felt a burning source of light bursting behind him and a deafening bang! Martin spun around and collapsed down hard onto a shelf. The shelf creaked and tipped over.

Cad groaned. Shit. He really needed, for once, to tell flashbangs apart from smoke grenades. He checked his ears to see if they were still working. Good. He blinked the black spots out of his eyes. Martin pushed himself up, ready to run. But his hand swiped on a handle on the wall where the shelf was.

Martin shifted his gaze towards a hidden door, now revealed due to his stupidness. Martin chuckled, and slammed the door open. It led to a dark hallway.

Martin slammed shut the door, and shot an asleep guard. He turned on the lights and the hall was unveiled.

Cad stared at the rows of boxes with slithering figures moving around inside on shelf. It was a reptile research lab. Martin looked around, seeing small pools with oversized crocodiles and a tortoises zipping around like sprinters in large cages.

The door burst open behind him.

"Aha!" Dr. Asclepius shouted, "We found you, now surrender!"

Martin proceeded to dartgun the three guards alongside with Asclepius. He then pointed his gun at him.

Asclepius reached for his radio. Martin pierced it with a dart before he could speak to it.

"If you were not my assistant who helped me," Martin said coldly, "I would've dartgunned your ass much longer ago. Now, be a good boy step aside."

"Oh, no," Asclepius replied and held up his hands, "I have no choice. Or Deny would kill me."

Martin pulled the trigger with fury. He waited for Asclepius to yell in pain.

Nothing happened.

Martin checked his ammunition supply. It was out.

"Shit," Martin muttered, backing up.

Asclepius chuckled. "Now we shall settle this," he said. Asclepius bent over and picked up a random thick metal rod on the ground. "Once and for all."

Martin took his stance. This is going to be painful.

For Asclepius, obviously.

Dr. Asclepius yelled and charged towards him. Martin ducked as Asclepius swung the rod wildly at his head. He backed up towards the end of the hall passing snake boxes as Dr. Asclepius repeatedly swung the rod around clumsily in a pompous style, not being able to touch Dr. Caduceus once. Martin stood there calmly as he waited for Asclepius to catch his breath.

"Are you done yet?" Martin scoffed.

"Never!" Dr. Asclepius chanted as he swung the rod again at Martin. Martin dodged it easily, but the rod slammed into a box labeled Dangerous Anomalous Serpents. The box tipped over and lid smashed open. Asclepius screamed with a high-pitched voice as he backed up away. Two golden serpents landed on Dr. Caduceus' head.

Martin tried to be calm, and allowed the snakes to slither onto his arms. He bent one arm down and one serpent crawled away, but the other stubbornly stayed on his left arm.

"Well, you bastard," Martin muttered. He grabbed the snake by its neck and launched it towards Dr. Asclepius. He screamed again as he used his rod to block the serpentine projectile. The golden snake landed on his rod and curled around it. It hissed angrily at Asclepius.

"Holy shit!" Dr. Asclepius yelled. He swung his snake rod around, trying to shake it off. But in the process he ran towards Martin.

The snake flew off into a nearby trash bin as Asclepius swung once more. He readied his rod and pushed it hard towards Martin's head.

Martin caught it in his hands and started to pull it from him.

"Give me that, you little…" Martin grunted.

"No, you son of a…" Asclepius groaned.

Asclepius yelled in pain as Martin launched his tin of berry mints into his cheek. It was a necessary sacrifice. Asclepius' grip on the rod loosened and Martin pulled it away from him.

"How dare you!" Dr. Asclepius shouted, charging towards Caduceus once again. Martin dodged his punches and slammed the rod into his crotch.

"Ow! My snake!" Asclepius yelled in pain. He collapsed onto the ground and grunted in pain.

"Don't mess with Dr. Martin Caduceus," Martin spat and threw the rod on Asclepius' head. He passed out. Cad proceeded to find Quasi.

He still had no clue where she was. Unlike Base Four, which he knew as well as how to spell his name, this site seemed to surprise him every time he enters a new room.

Martin walked to a nearby computer monitor displaying lab surveillance. Maybe this will show answers.

There was no Quasi on any section of the surveillance monitor. What did catch Martin's eye was one section that had no signal.

It was section C-4 of the laboratory. He swiftly turned around and ran for the entrance.

He then saw one problem. Dr. Caduceus stopped dead in his tracks. The door to the room was behind a caged cell.

Actually, that wasn't much a problem. There was also a strange giant crocodile-snake-tortoise-salamander hybrid creature in the cell. It bared its fangs at Martin and growled deeply.


"Damn you, you son of a bitch!" Edison Denhai yelled as he spat on Dr. Deny's face. "You cannot do this to me!"

"And what are you going to do now?" Dr. Deny said amusingly as he wiped his face.

"You faux Grimshire Deny," Denhai uttered viciously, "You shall suffer upon my scythe!"

"Too bad you cannot do that," Dr. Deny said and he drank his cup of tea. Edward looked out of the window. They were disguised as Canadian intelligence officials on board a Boeing E-3 Sentry plane to investigate QUAESITOR's landing, and they had just questioned Denhai. With a lot of pounding and beating, of course.

"See," Dr. Deny said, "Now you are as worthless as you think everyone else is. You have no use for us anymore."

"No!" Edison Denhai shouted as he struggled in his straitjacket, "You guys cannot fucking kill Edward Grimshire Deny! You goddamned imposter! I shall raze upon your flesh and bones! Let me go!"

"Whatever you say," Dr. Deny rolled his eyes and chuckled.


Agent Xanders followed the tire tracks in the forest. The landing site must be near here.

"Report," he said into his walkie-talkie, "Unidentified personnel passed through forests near Lake Melville about three days ago." Xanders followed the tire path down the hill covered with crushed saplings and bushes.

Xanders and his team walked out of the forest into a small treeless hill. There was apparent scrapes in the ground in the landing site, but no crater. With the constant reports recently of Chaos Insurgency activity near the vicinity, there was no doubt that they were here before the Foundation was able to react.

"Look!" Xanders' partner shouted as he pointed into the sky. There was a reconnaissance plane.

"It must be Canadian officials," Xanders remarked as he was ready to retreat back into the forest. Suddenly the plane dropped an object from the sky.

"Take cover!" Xanders yelled as he ran into the trees. This is not going to be good.

But it wasn't a bomb. It wasn't shaped like it. It…screamed.

It was a man.

The man landed onto the hill and stopped screaming. Xanders and his partner raced forward.

The man was badly beaten in a typical researcher's attire, with one cardboard weapon in his left hand shaped like a gun and another in his right shaped like a scythe.

"That is definitely not a government reconnaissance plane," Xanders muttered as he gazed at the plane.


Martin groaned. Weird reptilian animals. Not now.

He picked up a stick nearby and poked it at the creature in the cage, the common procedure. It snarled and snapped at the stick.

"Whoa," Martin said, "Calm down."

The creature did not listen to him. It snapped its jaws at Martin's direction, bending an iron bar.

Martin stood there, not knowing what the hell to do. He stared at the creature and had a long staring contest with it. It was interrupted by something touching his foot.

Martin looked down and saw two golden serpents. He had an idea. Maybe it would work, maybe it would kill him. It was worth it either way.

Martin picked the snakes up and shoved them into the cell between the iron bars. They hissed at the weird reptile and tried to slither back out, but Martin pushed them forward with a stick. The gigantic creature roared at the two golden serpents.

Its neck suddenly extended out, and the creature's mouth opened. A long lizard tongue reached out, smacking on one of the serpents. The golden serpent was stuck to the tongue as it retreated swiftly to its mouth. The crocodile-snake-tortoise-salamander creature then chewed loudly, spraying golden juice all over Martin's face.

The other serpent hissed nosily in response, and its eyes turned bright crimson. The tiny serpent launched its head forward towards the giant stubby legs of the creature and sank its fangs in. The crocodile-snake-tortoise-salamander hybrid howled in pain. Then it hardened into a golden, shining sculpture.

Martin's jaw dropped. He would love to keep that snake as a pet. A thousand thoughts went off in his mind on what he could do with the snake.

The serpent startlingly opened and extended its jaw. It grew and grew into a ridiculous size. It expanded to a mouth size large enough to sustain the entire crocodile-snake-tortoise-salamander sculpture.

Martin slammed open the cell door and moved on. Although it was sure was hell tempting, there was no time to stare at the snake doing its thing. He kicked the door, rubbed his foot from the pain, and kicked the door again until he managed to go through the doorway.

Then Martin ran inside, and saw his beautiful eye from the sky.

"Quasi…" Martin said as he surged forward.

Quasi turned her red sensor towards Martin. She looked pleased to see him. At least that was what Martin thought. Martin wrapped his arms around her silver body and looked into her sensor. He moved his head closer towards her, closing his eyes and bringing his lips upon…

"Surrender now or die!" shouted ten strike team members as they suddenly entered the room.

Martin reached his hand towards his dartgun.

"Move one more inch and we will pepper you like Caesar salad!"

Martin stopped. There weren't any darts left anyway.

"Drop your weapon!" another strike team member shouted, "And come with us!"

"How the hell am I supposed to drop my weapon if I can't move an inch to grab it?" Martin inquired.

"Shut the hell up and do as I said!" he ordered again, "Otherwise you will become Swiss cheese!"

Martin turned around and wrapped his arms around Quasi. "Bring us out of here," he whispered softly.

QUAESITOR stared blankly at him, as if she wanted to protest at his decision. "C'mon, it's our chance," Cad ensured.

"What in the name of Haos are you fucking waiting for?" the strike team member ordered again impatiently, "Hurry up before we open fire!"

Martin suddenly felt the vibrating movement on Quasi's surface. He held her tight.

Quasi started to rise up, but was restrained by metal frames.

"Five more seconds!" the strike team members shouted again, "And we will pepper you into Swiss cheese!"

"Come on, Quasi," Martin whispered, "You can do this. We are meant to be together."

Quasi attempted with stronger and stronger force pulling the metal frame up. But it did not budge.

"Five!" they shouted.

"You can do this," Martin whispered to her again.

"Four!"

"Quasi, I believe you can. You are my lovely eye in the sky."

"Three!"

Martin leaned in towards Quasi, and kissed her rough metal surface. She smelled sweet. Metallic sweet.

"You are my guardian angel."

"Two! Someone, get the disk!"

Quasi rose up and popped up one iron bolt sedating the metal frame to the ground.

"One!"

The metal frame shattered into a million pieces. Silver fireworks sprayed outwards and the guards stumbled. Nails splattered on the ground with satisfying clinks. Quasi rose up to her full height, eyeing the guards with her red sensor. She floated in midair and charged out the room, with Martin holding on to her.

Martin almost lost grasp of Quasi. Her burst of speed was incredible.

Quasi rose up, slowly, towards the glass ceiling. The guards started to recover.

"Grab hold," Quasi suddenly emitted in a monotone voice. Cad was more than ever pleased to do so.

She quickly accelerated, and shattered the ceiling with the tip of her head. Quasi exposed herself and Martin Caduceus to the cool evening air, out from the dark. She rose up faster, and sped forward, narrowly missing the impact of a wave of green neon light.

Cad screamed. He wasn't going to hold on to her long enough at this rate.

But when he finally lost his grasp while speeding in midair at a speed of a million kilometers per second, he did not fall.

Martin managed to look down. His belt was stuck to Quasi. So was his wrist. And his ankles.

"Magnetism," Quasi beeped. Martin smiled and let out a sigh of relief. He relaxed his limbs.

"Not very reliable here," Quasi added. Martin instinctively held on tighter again. The air still blew strongly against his manly and handsome complexion. This was definitely a fun air-roller coaster ride to go on with a loved one.

Quasi slowed, and lowered little by little. They later landed in the broad wilderness.


Edward visited Asclepius in the infirmary.

He sighed. He palmed his face.

Caduceus escaped. QUAESITOR breached containment. Dozens of personnel were killed. Tons of machinery were sabotaged thanks to the failed activation of the Detrimental Disk. Reptilian creatures roamed the site after that.

But these events were expected.

Edward Grimshire Deny walked into his office. He walked towards his desk briskly and grabbed his Lucky Luger.

He rubbed his hand on a long metal suitcase.

Dr. Deny opened up his computer. He checked on the tracker's location.

Edward smiled. The tracking device was injected inside Martin Caduceus' bloodstream years ago. It was fragile, and could be only used on one occasion.

But the plan was going well.

Edward Deny thought of what to do after this operation. He gathered needed data, wrote a message, and sent it to Dr. Asclepius.


Taking a bath with an extraterrestrial satellite in a cave is supposedly weird.

But if the satellite was Quasi, it felt natural.

The natural spring was dark but wonderful. It was cool, but not cold. The water flow was gentle and there were no mosquitoes.

Cad rubbed Quasi's rough surface with his shirt dipped in the water. Martin could not tell from her expression, but she must had been enjoying it.

After the intimate bath, Quasi lifted herself out of the spring-tub. Martin got up, lacking any other clothes to put on, dressed himself in combat armor. He this time used his jacket to dry Quasi off, although she didn't seem to mind being wet.

"Water," Quasi beeped, "Is an amazing compound."

"It sure is," Martin said. He reached his mouth forwards and kissed Quasi.

He was about to engage in foreplay, but his ears intercepted the sounds of a helicopter nearby.

Martin tensed. Who managed to find them? How did they?

"Freeze!" a strike team personnel yelled as he came running inside the cave, "Or-what the hell are you…"

His threat was cut short when Martin came stabbing a forcep into his throat. He picked up the guard's heavy automatic and a strange rod attached to his black belt.

"Martin," a familiar cold voice said. Two assault team members marched into the cave. Martin opened fire, shooting both of them down.

Then, as the smoke cleared near the dark cave's entrance, a figure entered the mouth of the cave. It was Dr. Edward Deny. But he looked different. He was suited in a peculiar combat armor. His eyes were wild, filled with murderous light of insanity. His face was pale white. On his left hand he held his Lucky Luger pistol. At the right hand he clenched hard onto a…

Scythe.

Dr. Deny pointed his Luck Luger at Martin. He fired.

"How pathetic," Dr. Deny remarked.

Martin felt a sharp burning pain in his left thigh. Dr. Caduceus yelled. He dropped his rifle and collapsed onto the ground. His head was swimming, Martin's vision was red. He clutched at the wound. It stung like a melting nail in his flesh.

Dr. Deny walked towards QUAESITOR. She was in midair, with her sensor glowing bright red at Edward Deny. Gear-like parts on the side of her body shifted, as if she was bracing for an attack.

Dr. Deny simply swiped the scythe in front of QUAESITOR. A dark purple aura was emitted from the blades, impacting on her.

QUAESITOR sputtered in midair. Martin watched in shock. Quasi's sensor grew dark, but she eventually steadied herself in the air. Her sensor's color was back on again. But it was sickly white. Quasi abruptly orbited wildly around, and sped towards the light entering the cave. She, without turning back, shot out the cave into the blue sky.

Martin stared in shock. His leg stopped hurting. He stared into the sky. His lovely eye was gone. He felt himself burning up, and exposed to the hellish atmosphere he was encased in long ago.

Dr. Deny laughed. He cackled into the air. His laughs pierced into the silence, rumbled the cave. He lowered the scythe.

"What a pity," Dr. Edward Grimshire Deny taunted and laughed maniacally, "I wield the scythe in one hand, and Lucky Luger in my other. I blinded your third eye. Your so-called guardian angel, her memories dissipated with the swing of a scythe."

Martin couldn't think straight. He looked around. The world was blurry. The spot in the blue sky was gone.

He was blind.

His third eye was blind.

"Deny," Martin whispered. Martin clenched his hands. He shifted his gaze towards the madman.

"No one takes QUAESITOR, my angel, away from Dr. Martin Caduceus," Martin continued, "Without getting there asses darted fifty million leagues beneath the depths of hell." Martin released a yell of pain and anger. He took out the strange dark rod, and it transformed into a full-sized dartgun.

Martin aimed the dartgun at Dr. Deny. He fired. He fired. He fired. And again. The shadows of the flying darts blocked out Deny's pale face. He was enveloped by the oncoming raging toxin dart typhoon.

Edward grunted. He stiffly stood in front of Martin. His knees weakened.

"I stand, ready and in command. The Great Armada at my back, the Emperors of the Fates at my sides, and the enemy in my gaze," Dr. Deny uttered weakly and fired his Luger. His final words floated away and he collapsed.

Martin exhaled harshly. He looked down, at the oozing hole in his chest. He reached inside and tore out the bullet, determined to go without Deny's bullet in his chest.

Martin fell and lay down. His gaze moved towards the source of light surging into the cave. He saw the blue sky.

She must be up there, Martin thought.

His lovely eye, up on the blue skies. Martin smiled and closed his eyes.


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