Chapter 10

A Queen Dethroned

Dana readied her shotgun as she stared down the monster that had not too long ago been a regular teenager by the name of Jennifer Harris. Due to the mutation caused by Hive Queen’s abilities, she was now no more than a mindless beast, acting only on the instinct to protect her creator. While this broke the detective’s heart, she knew she didn’t have any other choice. Even if there was a way to break Hive Queen’s control over the girl, there was most likely no chance that she could ever return to a normal life. The changes she had gone through were far too severe for that.

Wasting no more time on lamenting the girl’s unfortunate fate, Dana pointed her gun at the monster before her and pulled the trigger. The shot was narrowly avoided by Jennifer, who dashed to the side before running towards the detective at full speed. Dana didn’t have enough time to take another shot at her opponent, but she did manage to bring her gun up in order to block the large scythe-like claws that came down towards her and almost tore her to shreds.

The transformation had significantly boosted Jennifer’s physical strength, as she soon pushed Dana down to the floor. Normally the detective would have been able to easily fight back against a lone teen girl, but the strength granted by Hive Queen was more than she could handle.

The claws weren’t the only thing in the mutated girl’s arsenal that Dana had to watch out for, though, as a mouth full of razor sharp teeth were trying to desperately take a bite out of her. It took all of the detective’s strength just to hold Jennifer at bay, but the distance was being slowly closed down, as the mutated girl’s face kept inching towards her little by little.

Thankfully for her sake, Dana wasn’t just skilled with firearms, as she also had a fair bit of skills when it came to close combat as well. By using her skills, the detective was able to flip the monster over her, freeing herself from the slow and certain doom.

Dana quickly got back up on her feet and readied her shotgun again, but Jennifer had already run off, hiding herself among all the machinery and timber that was housed inside the building.

“Goddammit! Why does she have to be so damn quick!?” the detective cursed as she began to slowly make her way around the building in search of Jennifer. “Freaking hate this crap… Even when not dealing with bloodthirsty monsters.”

Dana moved as carefully and silently as she could while checking every corner her enemy could be hiding behind. She wasn’t worried of Jennifer suddenly coming down on her from above, as her wings had been tangled in the webs covering the place, making sure that she wasn’t capable of flight. The detective doubted that the mutated girl was going to take the time to clean her wings while there was an enemy in the hive. Her beast-like instincts would most likely tell Jennifer to kill the intruder before anything else.

However, while Dana had been correct on her assumption of the creature’s priorities, she had failed to realize something else. Even if Jennifer’s wings weren’t working properly, she could still get the drop on her prey from above through another method. Insects were able to climb on walls and ceilings, and that was true for Hive Queen and her spawn as well. The mutated girl was silently crawling across the ceiling, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. She moved on the spot right above Dana and prepared to drop down.

But while Jennifer was sure that her attack was going to be a complete surprise, it wasn’t one at all. Despite the mutated girl’s best attempts to move unnoticed, pieces of the webs stuck on her wings were falling down. Dana had noticed these from the corner of her eye and had at first thought nothing of it, considering it to basically be dust falling from the ceiling. But once she realized that the falling dust seemed to be following her, a realization dawned on her.

With a feral screech, Jennifer dropped down from the ceiling, claws and fangs ready to tear its prey to pieces. Before they could even scratch any flesh, Dana had rolled out of the way and pointed her shotgun at the mutated girl. Jennifer had barely any time to register what was going on, before the detective pulled the trigger and blasted a part of the insect monster’s head off.

“Sorry, kid, but I gotta go deal with your friends now,” Dana said quietly before running to the exit, hoping to get to Kyne in time to help him.

Back with Kyne, the telekinetic was having the toughest battle of his life. Not only did he have to deal with two mutated teens that were almost on the level of Hive Queen herself, but he also had a large number of regular drones coming from almost very direction possible.

The fight had only been going on for a couple of minutes and Kyne was already exhausted and bruised all over. While he had managed to take down a good amount of the regular drones, the two mutated teens had been barely touched by his attacks.

Connor and Sarah were using effective hit and run tactics with the assistance of the drones. The way it worked was that a couple of the regular drones would try to attack Kyne in some manner. While he was doing his best to repel the attacks, one of the two teens would swoop in and strike at their opponent. While they hadn’t been able to deal any severe damage to the telekinetic yet, the small wounds were beginning to pile up. This in turn led to a large amount of bloodloss. Add the strain of having to use his powers the entire time and Kyne was close to collapsing from sheer exhaustion.

Another pair of drones charged at the telekinetic, from different directions. Kyne quickly used his powers to push both of them away, but it didn’t bring him much comfort. A third one had been preparing to spit its web at the boy and almost hit him, but was torn apart as Kyne dodged the sticky substance.

However, this left him open to an attack, as Connor suddenly came right behind Kyne with his claws at the ready. Blood stained the grass on the ground, as the mutated boy managed to hit his target. The blow hadn’t been lethal this time either, as Kyne had managed to move out of the way just in time to avoid being cut in half. Unfortunately for the telekinetic, he did still get another wound on his body, adding to the loss of blood.

Having suffered already such a large loss of blood and being exhausted from the battle, Kyne was unable to land on his feet after dodging Connor’s attack, causing him to fall to the ground. As he was trying to get up, Sarah tried to jump down on him from above, claws ready to tear into flesh. The telekinetic boy was just barely able to use his powers to redirect her attack to the side. Causing the claws to embed to the ground next to him. Kyne then used his powers to push the mutated teen away and move out of the way as Connor came attacking him again.

As the battle was going on, Dana finally made her way to the battle zone. She was about to jump in and start blasting the monsters attacking her partner, but she realized that it wouldn’t do much. Even if she was able to take down a couple of them due to the surprise attack, her advantage would end there and they would both most likely end up shredded. What she needed was to find a way to use the surprise attack to greatly reduce their numbers in order to ensure victory.

The question was how could she do that?

It was then that she realized something. The building she and Kyne had been heading to had something in it that she could surely use to her advantage. She then began to head towards the building housing the vehicles of the sawmill, moving quickly but quietly, as she would need the element of surprise for her plan to work. Luckily for her, the battle with Kyne had fully caught the attention of the insect monsters, allowing herself to safely reach her destination.

What the detective was looking for was something she had seen at the sawmill a couple of years back. There had been an incident of arson and she had been among the police that were sent there to investigate. Luckily for the people at the sawmill the owner was a bit of an eccentric person, who had purchased the water pump from an old fire truck. He had done this as a means to prevent fires from spreading. What had at first been looked at as a useless purchase by a paranoid man had turned out to be a blessing that had saved the sawmill and the forest surrounding it.

This time, Dana wasn’t looking to spray water around. She had other plans for the pump.

Once inside the building, the detective soon found the water pump and began to make her preparations. She first emptied the water tank from water and then looked for gas canisters meant for the vehicles. Dana then emptied the canisters into the water tank before grabbing the hose of the pump. It was time to put her plan into action.

With the hose in hand, the detective ran outside where Kyne was still locked in combat with the drone surrounding him. The telekinetic boy seemed to be on his last legs as his injuries were starting to be too numerous for him to keep fighting.

“HEY! OVER HERE, YOU FREAKS!” Dana yelled, getting the attention of all of the drones. “KYNE, HIT THE GROUND!”

The telekinetic did as he was told and ducked to the grass. With her partner out of her range of fire, the detective began spraying gasoline everywhere, covering the drones in the liquid. Once that was done, she pulled out her lighter and lit it up.

“You’re toast, you bastards!” Dana shouted before throwing her lighter at one of the drones, causing it to burst into flames.

The drone that was encased in fire screeched in pain and began to move around frantically, causing a chain reaction where the gasoline spread around was set ablaze. The area was quickly turned into a flaming inferno. This is turn set the other drones on fire. Loud screeching echoed through the air as all the drones screamed in pain from being burnt alive.

Kyne, who had been lucky enough to avoid the spray of gasoline was able to crawl away from the flames. Dana had come not a moment too late to his rescue, as he had been going on at fumes at that point.

“Think I got all of them?” the detective asked while keeping her eyes on the fire before her for any sign of the drones coming out of it.

“I can’t say for sure, but it certainly looked like it,” the telekinetic replied while panting heavily. “I have to say, though, that you certainly pulled a move I didn’t see coming. I thought only Inferno would do something like this.”

“Who is-? Never mind. We gotta focus here. There’s still Hive Queen and we have to make sure that the drones were taken care of,” Dana said right before the body of one of the drones came out the flames, but soon fell to the ground dead. Judging by the shape of the body, the detective determined that it was the mutated body of Connor Matley, one of the three kids that had been mutated by the Hive Queen. “Well, that’s one. Wonder where the other-?”

Before Dana could finish her question, the last of the mutated human drones jumped out of the flames, screeching angrily as she headed towards the detective. Dana had been taken completely by surprise and could only watch with wide eyes as the monstrous form of Sarah Thompson charged towards her, ready to end her life.

However, just before she could get close enough for her claws to tear into the detective’s body, Sarah body was suddenly stopped by some sort of an invisible force. The mutated teen tried to furiously swing her claws at Dana, but could only hit air, just barely missing her target. It was then that the detective noticed Kyne with his arms stretched outwards as he was using his powers to hold back the monster.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?” the telekinetic yelled as he struggled to hold Sarah back. “TAKE HER OUT QUICK! I CAN’T HOLD HER BACK FOREVER!”

Finally snapping out of her shock, Dana aimed her shotgun at Sarah and pulled the trigger. The shit tore through the mutated girl’s body and pushed her to the ground. Her body twitched for a moment before finally remaining still.

“Thanks for the save,” Dana said as she fell on her knees and let out a deep sigh of relief. “Had you not done your thing back there, I would have been cut to ribbons.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m just relieved this is over for now,” Kyne said as he tried to walk up to the detective, only to fall to the ground and begin coughing violently.

“Hey! What’s wrong!?” the detective yelled, shocked and worried over the boy’s condition. She immediately got up and ran up to Kyne. It was then that she realized just how badly he had been wounded. “Jesus, they really did a number on you… We need to get you to a hospital and quick!”

“Absolutely not!” the telekinetic yelled. “Do you have any idea how they would react to me in there!? Not to mention, we would only get the people there involved into our mess. Besides, I’m just a bit exhausted from using my powers too much. That’s all.”

“Okay, cut the bullshit!” Dana yelled back. “I’m not freaking blind, okay!? Even if I was, I would be able to tell that you’re heavily wounded! We need to get you treated and fast!”

“I’m telling you that I’m fine! Besides, we have other issues to worry about,” Kyne said. “We might have finished off all the drones, but Hive Queen herself is still out there. Unless we take her down, this isn’t-”

The telekinetic boy was cut off as he noticed from the corner of his lone eye something flying in the sky very fast. Knowing what was coming next, he used his powers to push Dana back as he himself threw himself backwards to the ground. This allowed both of them to just narrowly miss the Hive Queen’s claws that were aiming to decapitate both of them.

Said Bio-Gladiator decided to take its leave now that the surprise attack had failed. The Hive Queen was about to fly away, only to feel some strange force hold it back by its legs. It looked down and saw Kyne with his arms stretched out towards it, using his powers to hold the flying monstrosity still.

“QUICK! SHOOT IT DOWN!” the telekinetic shouted as blood dripped from his mouth from overusing his powers so much.

Hearing the command from her partner, Dana snapped back to reality and took aim with her shotgun. She pulled the trigger and the shot ripped through Hive Queen’s wings. It was at that moment that Kyne let go of his powers, allowing Hive Queen to move again. Due to the loss of its wings, however, all it could do was struggle in the air for about a second before crashing through the roof of the sawmill.

“I got it! Yeah!” Dana shouted happily before turning her attention back to Kyne, only to see the boy laying on the ground, struggling to breathe with blood dripping from his mouth. “KYNE!”

“Forget about me! Get Hive Queen!” Kyne yelled back while coughing up blood. “If you let her get away, all of this has been for nothing!”

The detective wanted to argue back, but knew her partner was right. If they let Hive Queen escape now, the it could go and start building its forces again by capturing more innocent people and turning them into monsters as well. If they wanted to end it, they had to do it now.

“Alright. But I’m coming right back for you, got it!?” Dana yelled as she took off running after Hive Queen. “Don’t you go dying on me while I’m gone! I’m gonna get you some help! Just hang on!”

Kyne didn’t say anything in response to what his partner had said. Instead, he simply laid on the ground as his lone eye eventually closed and he stayed still.

Meanwhile, Dana had entered the building she had just been in when she had to face the mutated Jennifer Harris. Hive Queen herself had crashed into this building and now it was up to her to put down the monster that had caused so much death.

With her shotgun held up, the detective moved around the building ready to blast any monstrosity that came jumping at her. She eventually made her way to the same place where she had put down Jennifer and found Hive Queen there. Said Bio-Gladiator was struggling to get up, as the loss of her wings seemed to be causing a lot of pain. The crash through the roof had also seriously damaged the insect monster, as its body was bruised and bleeding.

“In the end, you were nothing but a big bug ready to be squashed,” Dana said with hate dripping from her voice as she took aim. “Well, time for me to be your exterminator.”

Before the detective could pull the trigger, Hive Queen seemed to have a sudden surge of energy, as it lunged towards Dana with claws at the ready. However, having dealt with such attack so many times by now, the detective wasn’t fazed by this attack at all. Instead, she simply used her shotgun to bash the Bio-Gladiator over the head.

Hive Queen stumbled back a bit from the sudden blow, but soon recovered. It tried to attack again, but the result was the same, a hit to the head from Dana’s gun.

“So you wanna play this game, huh!?” the detective asked angrily. “WELL COME ON THEN! GIVE ME YOUR BEST, ASSHOLE!”

What followed was a one-sided beating, where the Hive Queen tried to charge at Dana with its claws at the ready, only to get hit with the detective’s shotgun. This continued for a while, until the Bio-Gladiator seemed to finally run out of energy. All it could do anymore was try in vain to get up from the floor, after getting beaten up by Dana.

“End of the line,” the detective said as she took aim. “I’d ask for your last words, but I doubt you can even speak.”

“...P-Please….” Hive Queen suddenly pleaded in a weak voice.

“...What?” Dana asked with wide eyes, as she lowered her gun. “Did you just speak?”

“Please… no more… no more….” the insect Bio-Gladiator continued to plead pitifully.

Dana’s shock and surprise were quickly washed over by another feeling. This was pure rage, as she grew increasingly angrier at the creature before her with every second. Until now, she had thought that Hive Queen had been no more than an animal, having lost its humanity due to the inhuman experiments conducted on it. However, it seemed like it still had awareness and most likely knew what it had been doing.

“You gotta be kidding me… You dare plead for mercy!? Now!? AFTER EVERYTHING YOU DID!?” Dana screamed angrily at the Bio-Gladiator. “Do you even have any idea just what you’ve done!? How many people you’ve killed!? HOW MANY FAMILIES YOU’VE DESTROYED!?”

“Please… No more…” Hive Queen simply continued to plead.

“...You have no idea how much I hate you. You didn’t just kill some innocent kids, but turned them into monsters against their will, forcing me to put them down. Right now all I want to do is blast your brains over the wall with one quick shot,” the detective said while barely holding back her anger before turning around and walking away. “However, even if it’s something like you, I refuse to put down someone that pleads for their life. Just go to hell and never appear anywhere near me. Got that?”

Dana wasn’t even going to stay long enough to hear Hive Queen’s response, as she was far too worried over Kyne to stay and listen to the Bio-Gladiator’s pleas. However, this turned out to be a mistake, as Hive Queen had only pretended to having lost its will to fight. Having listened to enough human opponents and prey, it had learned a few words that it could use in certain situations. Apparently, the insect Bio-Gladiator hadn’t lost all of its human capabilities. Now that Dana had turned her back on it, Hive Queen prepared itself for a surprise attack from behind.

Unfortunately for the Bio-Gladiator, it had underestimated its opponent. This wasn’t the first time Dana had faced an opponent that had tried to save itself by pleading and acting pitiful. Many criminals had tried the same tactic back when she had still been part of the police and even during her time as a private detective.

Just as Hive Queen was about to begin her charge at Dana, the detective quickly spun around and fired her shotgun at the insect monstrosity. The blast tore into Hive Queen’s body, leaving it no chance of survival. All it could do was stare at Dana in utter shock before falling to the floor dead.

With her enemy now dead, Dana was about to leave the sawmill and go see her partner, but a thought crossed her mind. She then changed course and walked up to the body of Jennifer Harris, the girl whose parents had hired Dana to find. The detective knew there wasn’t much she could do anymore, but she at least wanted to give Jennifer’s parents something. A memento of their daughter that was so unfairly taken away from them.

Dana soon found something that suited her needs, a locket around Jennifer’s neck. Inside it was a small picture of the girl with her family, taken about a couple of years ago.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, but I at least made the thing that did this to you pay,” the detective said as she stood up and began to leave. “And I will make sure that the others behind all of this will pay as well.”

With determined steps, Dana walked out of the building and went to where she had last seen her partner. As soon as she got there, she was shocked to find Kyne laying down on the ground and not moving.