To Kill a Coyote

To Kill a Coyote
Tech shuddered in revulsion and drew into himself. He sat alone in the cavernous space he called a room. His pillow was soaked from sweat and as he looked around his room he got the distinct feeling he was being watched. He knew of course he wasn't, that the nightmare had only disturbed him to the point of paranoia but tentatively he drew his blanket up to his chin and stared out into the overwhelming darkness as if expecting a figure to suddenly appear in front of him.
He'd dreamt about the Stomper again, about how he'd clutched him in his fist and squeezed to the point he was sure his bones would shatter at any second. He'd had the dream before but there was something different about this one that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was as if there'd been an audience watching as the life was crushed out of him, silently watching with a cold callous that sent chills down his spine. When he'd woken up it felt as if he'd brought the figure with him, as if it had decided to continue to watch him. It felt… hungry.
It disturbed him even more to think this and he shook his head violently to try and rid himself of the gruesome image his mind had conjured up.
Suddenly a clash of thunder ripped through headquarters and he plastered himself against the headboard of his bed as distant lightning shed an electric glow across his bed and the shadow of a figure lay at the foot of his bed, coiled in the darkness like a venomous snake.
His eyes grew wide and he found himself darting away from the bed and across the room at a speed to rival Rev's.
His ears perked up and it seemed he could hear everything, including a mechanical hiss that resonated in his ears in a way that he wasn't sure if he had actually heard it or not.
He took a deep breath and grabbed the thing closest to him to defend himself with but as the next flash of lightning illuminated the space between him and his bed he saw nothing but himself holding his desk lamp. He backed up into the corner now and clutched his knees in fright, waiting for whatever it was hiding in the darkness to attack, clutching his desk lamp so tight his fingers began to cramp.
When morning finally came he was still awake, his eyelids heavy but unwilling to close even with the light of dawn peeking in through his window and turning his bed sheets a deep blood red. Sleep however was winning the battle now as his adrenaline slowly began to wear off and finally his eyes closed and he slept with his head pressed against the corner of the wall. That is… until he heard Rev knock in quick loud succession on his door and he groaned in exasperation, thinking about whether or not it had been the wise decision to run from the creature when Rev's knocking pounded through his head like ritualistic drums.
Finally when Rev refused to stop knocking Tech forced himself up and answered the door in his pajamas, dark rings under his heavy lidded eyes telling Rev that knocking was not a wise decision.
"Are you alright? You don't look so good. Didn't you sleep? I shouldn't have knocked so loud." Rev rambled apologetically in his normal high speed banter.
Tech held his head and put up a fake smile, waving his hand as if to tell Rev to forget about it.
"What is it Rev?" he asked calmly with a small sigh, finding his head felt a little better now.
"Zadavia called… she wants to talk to you alone." Rev stated worriedly.
Tech's eyes widened in worry now and he wondered what she could want with only him for a moment before looking back at Rev.
"I'll be there in two minutes." He said resolutely and Rev nodded, taking off for the kitchen to see the others.
Tech got dressed as quickly as he could and rushed to the communications room to find Ace giving him a worried look but leaving him alone with Zadavia, closing the door behind him.
To see Ace look worried gave him a chill and he found himself looking gravely up at Zadavia.
"You wanted to see me?" he asked, taking a seat.
"Yes, Tech… I wasn't sure how you would handle the news so I asked the others to step out for a moment. Mallory Casey is dead. They found her in her cell yesterday morning lying in her bed unresponsive. I knew despite how things turned out between you two you still had history together and I knew it would be a bit of a shock." She said gently.
Tech stared for a long moment at nothing in particular before speaking up, still only staring straight ahead.
"Cause of death?" he asked slowly.
"It is assumed cardiac arrest. An autopsy will be done tomorrow to verify."
He nodded slowly, numbly before turning his attention to her once more.
"Is that all?" he asked numbly and Zadavia nodded comfortingly.
"Goodbye Tech."
"Goodbye…" he said softly and the hologram disappeared, leaving him sitting by himself in with only the light from a nearby computer to illuminate the room, "Goodbye…?" he repeated, although more of a question this time.
He had only seen Mallory two weeks ago. It was true that she hated him and he severely disappointed of the direction in which she'd taken in life but it was still a lot to take in. It was so hard to believe that such a woman COULD die. It almost seemed impossible that such a strong woman could be taken down by a heart attack. He wondered for a long moment about this and again he heard the sound of ritualistic drums pounding through his head again, only this time he was certain it was his heart that was doing to pounding and for a moment he felt as if the eyes of the creature were once again upon him and that he too would soon end up in a wooden box.
He shivered at this thought and took a brief look around to make sure that the feeling was only a feeling before pressing the button to open the door and leaving the room in darkness once more where a silvery serpent waited in the shadows just out of sight from the doorway, it's red eyes burning into Tech's back as he left, a smile seeming to grace it's metallic lips and curve them up and away from its silvery fangs.
Tech felt as if something was still watching him but he tried to move past it and concentrate on the task at hand: how to deal with the others' questions.
As if on cue, the others began peeking around the corner curiously but upon seeing his weary expression said nothing.
"Mallory died yesterday." He said hollowly, looking through them more than at them.
"I'd of thought you'd think that was a good thing. She did try to kill you after all." Duck said blatantly to which Lexi shot him a heated glare.
Tech grimaced slightly at the statement but didn't outright glare at Duck as Lexi had done.
"She was still my apprentice at one time. Despite how things turned out I never wished her dead." He explained, shaking his head.
"Hey ah… why don't we head out for some ice-cream guys? My treat." Ace offered to which Slam licked his lips and rubbed his stomach hungrily, agreeing.
"Eh, no thanks guys. I've got some work to do on my new matter density adjuster." Tech said politely with a small smile.
"Matter what?" Duck asked, confused.
"Matter density adjuster; everything is made up of matter and matter is full of empty spaces. By adjusting the placement of the spaces within the matter you ultimately change an objects size and density, allowing molecules to pass through the empty spaces of any other object's matter." Rev explained at such a high speed everyone simply stared at him blankly for a moment except Tech, who was used to the Roadrunner's high speed banter by this point and knew exactly what he was saying.
"You mean like a ghost?" Lexi asked curiously with a touch of excitement in her tone.
Tech nodded at this.
"And at the other end of the spectrum, reducing the spaces would make an object so dense a feather would have the same impact as a brick of cement." He explained.
"So you mean I could take down the stomper with one blow?" Duck asked, rubbing his hands together as he imagined flicking the killer on the nose and sending him flying into a brick wall.
Tech shuddered at the name and shook his head.
"I haven't tested it on anything living yet. I'm afraid that by increasing space between the matter that our neurons wouldn't be able to bridge the gap in time and we'd be brain dead in a matter of seconds. However if it's done proportionately at the same rate of all other changes it might work." Tech explained to which Duck's eye twitched.
Ace smirked at Duck now.
"Maybe Duck would like to volunteer to test it then. After all he hasn't got much of one to lose in the first place."
Everyone but Tech and Duck began howling with laughter and even Tech cracked a little smile in spite of himself.
"Hey… wait a minute!" Duck finally said, realizing for the first time what Ace meant.
Even Tech couldn't contain himself this time and Duck crossed his arms and pouted.
"You're despicable…" he said, pushing past Ace for the door.
Ace rolled his eyes and grinned back at Tech who was now smiling.
"Sure you'll be ok here by yourself?" he asked as the others headed out the door.
"I'll be fine. Enjoy your ice-cream." Tech said, waving his hand as if it were no big deal, "I'll see you when you get back."
Ace nodded and smiled, heading out the door.
"See you later Tech!"
Tech smiled and waved but as soon as Ace was gone he yawned dramatically and stretched, heading to his room. He'd work on the matter density adjuster after a quick nap. There was no way he could concentrate on less than an hour of sleep.
This time he was sure to leave the lights on however and simply pulled the blanket over his head.
"No demon snakes…" he yawned, checking under the blanket with a small, tired smile before passing out.
Two minutes later after he'd fallen asleep however the lights flickered out and he felt something cool and metal slide around his neck.
He swallowed dryly now and looked down to see the silvery outline of the snake coiled around his neck, its head poised directly in front of his face. Silver fangs protruded from its jaw and he saw that they dripped with something.
He froze, unable to move aside from the trembling in his chest as his heart seemed to be pounding a way out of it.
He slowly slid his hand behind the head and attempted to grab its neck but the moment his fingers touched the cool metal it struck forward and he felt the icy cool fangs slide into his neck, injecting its venom and drawing back.
He gasped and looked in horror at the snake in front of him before his vision started to swim and his limbs grew heavy. He could still feel the snake on top of him but he couldn't move to get away from it.
This was turning out to be a very, very bad day.