- Joined
- Sep 24, 2011
I've teased everyone (did NOBODY notice my sig?? :p) and put it off and wanted to write this for a while but then I broke my keyboard and had to wait on a replacement, but finally, I get to write this. I may have to do it in parts.
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*Chapter 1*
"No, Asuka. You know the effect you have on the Devil Gene. If I am to defeat Kazuya, I must have my full strength... and he must be at his. Otherwise it is a hollow victory. You must stay here at the compound."
"Jin, I... I just worry. I don't want to see anything happen to you..."
"I appreciate your concern. But my powers are as good as Kazuya's. I will be fine. But you must stay safe. Please do not come after me."
"o..okay."
Jin Kazama took a brooch from his dresser. It was given to him by his mother, Jun. Nobody had seen her for years, and she was presumed dead. It was all he had left of her. He headed out the door into the night. Asuka waited until he was out of sight, and then keeping her distance, sneaked off after Jin.
After a few moments, she came to the clearing Jin and Kazuya had agreed upon meeting at. She hid behind a thick tree, making sure she didn't have an effect on their Devil Genes. Something that had never been fully explained caused the Devil Gene to regress, weakening its effect. She needed to make sure she didn't give herself away.
"So... you came after all. I expected nothing less."
"And miss the chance to take you out once and for all? I think not."
"Kid, don't delude yourself. A volcano could not stop me, what makes you think you can?"
"Because," Jin said, as he closed his eyes and began his transformation, "A volcano is not a devil."
Kazuya sneered, and began his own devil transformation. "Hah! In that case, come at me."
Asuka watched in a combination of fear and fascination. She had never seen one of Jin's transformations before. She watched as the colour of his skin seemed to drain away, as if a valve had opened up. His hair lengthened and went jet black. Long black curled horns grew on his head. His eyes became golden, glowing yellow. Finally, a pair of wings as black as midnight shot out from his shoulder blades. Asuka could not help but gasp slightly. Jin's pant legs tore, chains wrapped around one leg. With that, Jin had gone into recession, replaced by Devil Jin. This Jin was without mercy or compassion. Asuka had stopped one of his out of control rampages once just by managing to get near enough so that whatever antigen in her was able to manifest and reverse the Devil Gene. He had attained total control over it since then. She knew if she were discovered, she could have her life ended by a well placed laser blast, never having the opportunity to get close enough. And she knew it would probably be Kazuya.
Jin and Kazuya began to fight, punches, kicks, and parries flying like a well choreographed ballet of violence. Laser blasts raked the clearing ground, carving deep grooves into the earth. The two parried, riposted, and attacked back and forth for what seemed ages, neither man - or rather, beast at this point - getting an advantage. Finally recklessness set in, trading a blow taken to be able to land one. Kazuya came in with a punch to Jin's jaw, but it left him open to a retaliatory spinning kick. The chain caught Kazuya in the side of the head, opening him up. He bled purple. Jin landed a well placed scissor kick. Kazuya hit the ground, and spun, sweeping Jin off his feet. Jin hit the floor, and Kazuya fired a short laser blast into Jin's chest. Jin yelled out in pain. Asuka had to force herself not to go to his aid. However it did not cut through Jin's body as it may have anyone else, due to the Devil Gene. Jin returned fire, but Kazuya dodged. As he moved his head, Jin swung his fist up into Kazuya. Kazuya's head had arced right into Jin's fist, doubling the impact. It knocked him loopy enough that Jin was able to push him to the ground while he recovered. Both the devils stood facing each other. The battle had gone on an hour and fatigue was now starting to set in. Kazuya sneaked under the arc of one on Jin's punches, and headbutted him in the face, knocking him backward. Jin shook his head to clear it. Kazuya fired a laser blast. Jin met it with his own, the two trying to overpower each other. Kazuya's purple laser blast met Jin's red one. The two appeared to push each other back and forth, struggling for dominance. Exertion began to appear on their faces, neither wanting to be the one to quit first. As the battle of attrition wore on, Asuka tried to will Jin into it. Finally the two dropped to their knees, their devil energy spent. They continued the fight, as humans. It would not last long as they had already spent their energy. Kazuya parried a punch, then landed a kick to Jin's stomach. Jin doubled over, and Kazuya drove his arms into his back like a sledgehammer. It knocked Jin to the ground. Finally, he stomped on Jin's head, knocking him out. Asuka tried not to scream. Kazuya sneered at Jin and limped off, having won the fight, but only just.
When Asuka was certain Kazuya had gone, she ran over to Jin and knelt beside him. "Jin? Jin. Wake up... say something. Are you alright? Jin!" She shook him gently by the shoulders.
The Devil Gene in Jin reacted to her touch, sensing one in the Kazama-Mishima bloodline. As Asuka pleaded with Jin to wake up, a ball of red plasma-looking energy rose up from his back. Asuka looked wonderingly at it, watching it slowly float upwards. On one knee, she watched it float at eye level for a moment. Without warning, the ball of plasma surged into her chest. Red light illuminated her torso for a moment, making it look like she were glowing. Asuka arched her back and neck in pain, and screamed at the top of her lungs, but she was unaware she was doing so. Finally the glow subsided, and Asuka slumped over to the ground facedown, unconscious.
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*Chapter 2*
Asuka woke some hours later. Shaking her head, she sat up. She looked around. She was back at the compound in her room. Jin was with her, looking both worried and angry.
"Finally, you are awake. I'm glad for that, but I specifically told you not to follow me, and yet you did. Why did you disobey me like that?"
Asuka was a little hurt. "I was concerned... I.. I had to make sure nothing bad would happen."
"I can handle my own business, Asuka."
Asuka felt a surge of anger. She got up out of bed. "I.. I need to go outside and think. It's 2:30 AM but I'm not tired." She went out the door. Jin followed her.
"Asuka, we are not done here yet. I want to know why you disobeyed me."
Asuka clenched her teeth. "I told you, already! I was worried!"
Jin repeated, "I can handle my own business!"
Asuka began to yell, something she very rarely did. "Yeah, I saw how well you handled it! You got your ass kicked, knocked out with a stomp to the head! Way to handle your business, Jin! That's handling it, is it? Losing the fight? If that's how a Kazama handles business, sometimes I wish I weren't a Kazama!"
Jin was taken aback. "Asuka, please. Calm down. I'm sorry I was abrupt with you. Jun would not approve.."
Asuka's anger had reached a boiling point. "Well she isn't here! I don't care one bit about what she thinks, or would think!"
Now Jin was getting mad. "Asuka, don't you ever talk about my mother like that again. She is your aunt, you know." (Well, Jin and Asuka are cousins, sooo...)
Asuka had ber back turned to Jin. She didn't answer.
Jin strode over to Asuka, and grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. As he did, Asuka met him with a punch to his jaw. It caught him by surprise and knocked him to the ground in a sitting position. Fury etched her face. "You get your damn hands off me. You touch me again and I'll sever whatever body part you do it with." Asuka turned and stalked off angrily into the night. Jin did not follow, too surprised and disappointed to do anything.
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Asuka angrily muttered to herself, walking along the moonlit path through a large garden. She was so caught up in what had just happened she bumped into Lili. "Hey! Why don't you-" Lili was cut off as Asuka angrily shoved her to the ground. "I'm not in the mood for your ignorant crap, Lili. You would do well to save it tonight." Asuka went to leave. "Hey! You can't do that to me and get away with it? Who in the hell do you think you are? Hey!"
Asuka lost the grip on her anger. She wheeled around to face Lili. She glowered at her. Lili stopped short. Asuka's eyes were glowing a lurid red, terrible pinpricks in the night. Lili blanched. "Wh- what... Asuka? Wait, I..."
Asuka balled her fists and spread her arms to the side. Her skin colour took on a slightly pale looking grey pallor. Short horns grew from her head. Black, crystalline-looking wings shot from her shoulder blades, not as large as Jin's or Kazuya's had been, but large enough to put fear into Lili. "Who do I think I am, huh? I will show you just who I am."
"Asuka? What the... how..?"
Asuka rushed forward and began to mercilessly pummel Lili. Her attack was largely undisciplined, more of a rugged street brawl. She elbowed Lili in the jaw, and followed up with a kick to the stomach. Then she kneed Lili in the side of the head. It stunned her, and she fell to the ground. Lili cowered in fear for her life. Asuka was without compassion, kicking Lili in the face. Her head snapped back and she fell to her back. Asuka stomped hard on her stomach, causing Lili to choke and driving the air out of her. She felt ribs crack.
Lili stood up, and turned into another punch which rocked her head to the left. Another to the right. Back and forth it went, battering her completely loopy. Finally, another hook landed which spun her in a half circle. She crashed hard to the concrete ground.
Shaking her head to clear the rolling fog, she slowly struggled to her feet. Turning around, she saw Asuka, who seemed to be shrouded in some sort of darkness even as the moonlight illuminated the scene around them.
"Little girl", Asuka said, voice haunted with a slight echo, "You asked me who I thought I am. I am the living embodiment of purity's dark side... and now I have been completely awoken. I am Devil Asuka." Twin pinpricks of a horrible, lurid red light appeared, and got brighter. It lit up Asuka's slightly demonic looking face. Lili's eyes widened in white terror. "And you... are my first victim." A laser blast suddenly cut the night, and slammed into Lili's chest. It flung her backwards fifty feet, where her unconscious body came to rest. Blood streaked her face and smeared on her arms and hands. She lay facedown, a small pool of blood forming. Luckily for her, the Devil Gene that took up residence in Asuka was slightly mitigated by the natural antigen she had, and as such the laser blast, while forceful, was not lethal.
"And I will not be stopped, especially by the likes of a simple human weakling as yourself." Asuka's hands went to her eyes as she rubbed away the pain from the laser blast, as Asuka was unaccustomed to such a sensation. After it subsided, she glided off into the night.
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*Chapter 3*
Xiaoyu, Julia and Christie had assembled for breakfast as usual. "Good morning all!" Xiaoyu said, chipper as seemingly always. Julia and Christie greeted her in response. "Hey... where's Asuka?"
Julia looked over at the empty chair. "Huh... that's weird. I hadn't noticed, to be honest. Where IS she?"
Christie put her fork down. "I'll go check her room. It's weird, she's always here..." She darted off upstairs. Julia and Xiaoyu looked at each other. "I mean maybe she missed the call, it happens... sometimes my alarm doesn't go off. I slept until 11:30 once! My whole day was just shot."
"I hear you", said Xiaoyu. I get that way when I have too much on my mind and I meditate. I feel better later, but I can lose entire hours that way."
Christie came back down the stairs. "Guys, she isn't there. Should we worry now?"
"Well," Julia said, "if she isn't back by tonight, I would worry. Maybe she just had something she had to do."
The day came and went with no sign of Asuka anywhere.
"Alright, I'm going to go looking for her. I'll text you guys if I find her." Christie put on her shoes and left.
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Snap. Devil Asuka broke the neck of another rabbit. She had been hunting small woodland creatures and killing them for fun, giggling with delight every time the life drained from a poor creature. She had killed dozens of mice, a few sparrows, and a lot of birds. She watched as the rabbit squirmed helplessly, then went into its death throes and fell limp in her hands, the life drained from it. She tossed it aside. Everything became boring after a while. She heard Asuka's name being called from a distance. "A new playmate! Oh, I so love making new friends..." Devil Asuka slinked through the trees silently, killing woodland critters on the way for the fun of it. She spotted a deer. As she started toward it, she heard her name again, close. "Asuka? Are you there?" Christie saw Lili near the trees that led into woods, still unconscious. With some hesitation, she went to check on her. She gently shook Lili. "Lili? Hey, wake up... are you alright?" Lili stirred. "Unnnnhhh...." As she raised her head, Christie saw the dried blood on her face and arms. "Whoa, what happened? Lili? Who did this?"
"A... Asuka... she... laser...." Lili's head dropped back into her arms with a moan.
"No, no no no, Lili, I need you awake! What about Asuka? Lasers? I don't get it... Lili! Wake up!" Christie shook her harder.
Devil Asuka planted a knee into Christie's back. Christie arched backward in pain. Asuka put an arm around her neck in a Dragon Sleeper choke, and began to crank. "Oh, I'll make sure you get it, Christie. You'll get it gooood..." She pulled Christie onto her back on top of her, and began to choke the daylights out of her. She cranked Christie's neck backwards harder. Christie began to choke and heave. Asuka scissored her legs around Christie's stomach, further restricting her breathing. Just before Christie blacked out, Asuka let her go. Christie began to forcefully cough and gasp deeply for air. As she stood up, Asuka picked up a stout tree branch. She slammed it over Christie's head. A kaleidoscope explosion of colour and light went off in Christie's vision, like fireworks. Christie sunk to the ground, dazed badly.
"I have a nice little session of pain in mind for you... Let's put those nice hard stomach muscles to the test, shall we?" She picked Christie up into a standing position, bent over, arm around her neck in a guillotine choke position with no pressure, just enough to keep her there. "Tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to start kneeing you in that nice hard stomach of yours and see how many it takes me to turn those hard muscles into oatmeal." She then kneelifted Christie in the stomach. Christie flinched and grunted. Devil Asuka wound up, and kneed her again. Another grunt. Asuka continued to lay in kneelifts. Christie was starting to flag. By the eighth knee, the wind was driven out of her, and she exhaled hard. "Ahh, there we are... But I'm sure you can take a little more..." Devil Asuka took a lot of pleasure in continuing to drill knees into Christie. Christie was starting to feel sick. Devil Asuka kneed Christie again, but only at a quarter of the force she had been. "Haha.. that was a tease. I just wanted to feel you convulse..." Devil Asuka ran her left hand over Christie's back and sides, right arm still pinning her neck. "Mmm... You're definitely a strong one. That's why it's so, so much fun to-" she punctuated the next words with a kneelift- "break you like this." Christie began to dry heave with every knee. "Oh come on, it's only been fifteen! I'm sure you can keep going! I know I can..." Another kneelift, another forceful expulsion of air. Christie's stomach muscles spasmed in reaction. Devil Asuka took a lot of pleasure in the feeling. "That's right... I've battered those poor muscles into goo. And yet... I want to see how many more you can take..." Another kneelift. Christie's stomach jackknifed in response. She fell limply to her knees, neck still trapped. "That was nice..." said Devil Asuka, "Now how about an encore." She pulled Christie to her feet and began rapidly kneeing her. Finally Christie's stomach muscles could take no more, and she vomited on the grass. Asuka looked at her with false concern. "Awww, now she's gone and gotten sick." Another heave totally emptied the contents of her stomach. She wiped her mouth and spit, and tried to crawl away. Devil Asuka drove a straight-down elbow into Christie's neck, knocking her down onto her now-tender stomach. Christie did not move.
"Well, isn't that a shame! Oh well... you did rather surprise me with the knee gauntlet. I thought for sure you'd have called it quits long before 23." She rolled Christie onto her back. Christie's limp body easily turned over. Devil Asuka surveyed her handiwork. Christie's stomach was already a ghastly, oily looking purple. "One for the road," Asuka said, and swung a punch into Christie's badly bruised stomach. Christie didn't react. "Have a nice sleep" Asuka said, and disappeared back into the woods.
Lili slowly looked up. "Man, Christie took a pounding for checking on me... I've got to do what I can to help her." She put one of Christie's arms over her shoulders, and picked her up. "Come on, you. Let's get you back to the compound and get some help."
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*Chapter 4*
"God, what the hell happened to you two??" Julia asked in astonishment.
"Well, let's just say we know what happened to Asuka... Can we get a hand here? Some medical aid might be nice too..." Lili handed off Christie and then flopped into a chair. "Oof! Unh... man. I think I have a concussicussion." Lili stopped. "Wait, what did I just say? Oh, man..." she held her head again. "She needs help first though, Asuka kneed the crap out of her stomach, she's probably in a lot of pain."
"So wait" Julia said. "Where the hell is Asuka?"
"I may have a concussion, but I know what I saw... it... it looked like Asuka, but she had wings, and her eyes glowed this unholy, terrible red... she had horns..."
Julia and Xiaoyu looked at each other. "Uhhhh... that doesn't sound good." Xiaoyu said.
"Yeah", Julia replied. "If I didn't know any better, I would say you were describing Devil Jin."
"Yeah, but Asuka doesn't have a Devil Gene. Hell, she has the anti Devil Gene or whatever that is nobody knows about her."
Lili chimed in. "Hey, that might be why my head didn't fly off when she hit me with a laser... I mean she did send me flying backwards, but I mean I'm okay otherwise... she couldn't generate enough power to really mess me up."
"What about Christie? She looks pretty messed up."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I am not messed up... but with Christie, she got her in some sort of headlock and then hit her with knees... I don't even know how many. I pretended to be unconscious so that Asuka wouldn't attack me too, so that I could get up and get us back here. You can think it's terrible of me to not have gotten up and tried helping her, but if she had taken me out too... like, again... I may not have been alive to tell you this stuff. We have to find her."
Julia looked thoughtful. Xiaoyu spoke up. "Well, how do we find her? And what do we do with her when we do?"
Julia was lost in her thoughts.
"Julia?" Xiaoyu nudged her. "Earth calling!"
Julia came back to reality with a start. "Oh! I'm sorry, I was just thinking... is that really a devil version of Asuka? If so, I may have some research that can help... I was working with G-Corporation on the Devil Gene, it's the GENOCELL project. We had found a way to recess the Devil Gene, when Jin was going apeshit with it. I can make up some of the serum, and combined with Asuka's natural inhibitor, it may be enough to drive it out of her. But how did it get into her to begin with?"
"I may have an answer."
Everyone turned to look at Jin. "I challenged Kazuya to a fight. I very specifically told Asuka she could not follow me, but apparently she did. I lost the fight, and when I woke up, she was unconscious next to me. I brought her back to the compound. She was really mad, she hit me, and left. I haven't seen her since. But I can't seem to transform myself into the devil. I am thinking the gene transferred itself to her. Why, I don't know. But Julia, perhaps it would not hurt to whip up a batch of that serum anyway, just in case this really is Asuka, and she really is a devil."
Julia nodded and headed to the G-Corp laboratories.
"In the meantime" said Xiaoyu, "We need some way to draw her out. I think I need to be that person. We're good friends, so... hopefully I can get through to her."
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*Chapter 5*
"Well, Julia? How's it going?" Xiaoyu asked at breakfast one day.
Julia wiped her hands on her white lab coat. "Ugh. It's been a week and I still can't get the formula just right! I'm missing something. It's like something in the ingredient list is missing. And we can't even test on Jin, cause well, you know."
"Can I take a look? I like computers. People don't really know that about me."
"What the hell, why not. It can't hurt. Let's go." Julia led Xiaoyu to her workstation. Her shoes clacked smartly on the floor.
Xiaoyu began to poke around in the computer, opening windows and files. She looked like a natural at it. "Wait... what if.." Xiaoyu closed the windows and typed in a command line. The computer started spewing code.
"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" Julia asked worriedly.
"I'm searching for overwritten files. Sometimes a fresh outlook is all you need. You've been tied up with this thing for a week working on something else. Maybe you just need a new perspective. Ah, wait, see this?" She called up an innocuous looking file. "Watch this." Xiaoyu ran it through a decrypter. In an hour she had it cracked. "Look at that!" she exclaimed. "This is why your formula keeps breaking down. This is the original! It looks like someone overwrote it... I don't know how to tell you this, Julia, but you better watch your batch. These G-Corp guys... I dunno. Someone tampered with it. But if you cook this up, this is what you need."
"That is amazing, Xiao. Thanks so much. You've just given us the breakthrough we need."
Julia went off to mix another batch of serum. Xiaoyu went back to her room to plan how she was going to draw out Asuka.
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Xiaoyu stood in the middle of the clearing where Asuka first inherited the Devil Gene from Jin. "Asuka Kazama! If you are around, I would speak with you!" She was met with silence. She called out again. "Asuka! I know you can hear me. Come here so we can talk!" Again, no answer. Xiaoyu played the card she didn't want to have to. "If you won't talk, come and fight me then, coward!"
Xiaoyu saw a shadow pass by. She looked up. Devil Asuka was descending in a circular motion, like a vulture. She flitted to the ground. "Xiaoyu? You seriously challenge me? Have you not seen what I did to Lili and Christie?"
"What, you mean attack them with their backs turned? Oh yeah, I've seen that. How about you do something about it when someone is looking straight at you?"
"My, my. When did you get such courage? Oh... I know when." Devil Asuka charged a laser blast, then fired it into the underbrush. Julia cried out in pain and hit the ground. Asuka rubbed her eyes, clearing the pain. "When you had your little friend there waiting in the wings." Xiaoyu gasped, eyes wide. "Ah, how quickly the confidence melts away. Much like a deer in the headlights. I accept your little challenge. Now... let's see what you can do."
Xiaoyu had no choice but to stand and fight now. She circled around Devil Asuka, who simply stood straight up, never meeting Xiaoyu's gaze, looking straight ahead. Xiaoyu narrowed her eyes. What is she up to, Xiaoyu wondered. She tried to sneak in with a palm strike, but Asuka parried it, never moving more than her arm, again without even looking. Xiaoyu tried a quick one-two, but again it was parried without even any visual contact. Xiaoyu was beginning to get unnerved. She tried a spinning flurry, something she was remarkably good at. She could land five or six solid blows before you could even blink. But Asuka blocked every one of them, catching the last punch by her wrist. Xiaoyu looked scared. Devil Asuka grinned. "I do so love playing with my toys... unfortunately I have such a terrible habit. I am clumsy, and my toys... they break easily." Suddenly she forced Xiaoyu's right arm backward, breaking it. Xiaoyu cried out in pain, wiping a tear away with her other hand. "Ow, ow, ow.." she let out. Asuka drove a knee into Xiaoyu's stomach. She doubled over coughing. "Oh come on, you're not nearly so fun! The capoeira girl lasted at least eight before she got to that point! Man... how disappointing. I suppose my new toy isn't very much fun to play with. Oh well... I might as well see how fragile it is." She planted a left hook on Xiaoyu's jaw that spun her around. A spinning round kick to the face stumbled her again. Smirking, Devil Asuka advanced on her. Xiaoyu caught her off-guard with a rising crescent kick to the jaw that snapped her head back. She had to press the attack. She came in with a left punch and a spinning wheel kick to the head. Asuka bent forward, holding her head. Xiaoyu soccer kicked her in the face, standing her up. Devil Asuka held her nose, snapping back. Xiaoyu tried to press forward with a left punch again, but Asuka caught it and threw a hook kick that struck Xiaoyu in the back of the head, stunning her again.
Julia opened her eyes, and blinked away tears. "Am... am I dead? Spirits, is this the afterlife?" Her answer was the sound of hand to hand combat being waged. "Why is everything sideways?" Then her eyes focused, and she sat up. "Oh. Duh." Then she remembered why she was there. "Oh crap, the needle! I brought a needle with the serum, where the hell is it?" She frantically started searching for it.
The sound of shoe leather smacking off human flesh sounded again. Xiaoyu was getting dizzy from the blows to the head. She stood unsteadily. Devil Asuka measured her and spin-kicked her in the head again. Xiaoyu bent forward from the impact, but her little frame belied her toughness, and she did not go down. Even Devil Asuka was surprised. "I won't lie, Xiaoyu. I thought for sure you would have been done by now." She threw a jumping bicycle kick. It caught her in the jaw, and she hit the ground, laying on her back. The world was racing past her eyes as she got dizzier and dizzier. Asuka kneeled over top of Xiaoyu and punched her in the face. Her head hit the ground, fortunately not concrete or much more damage could have been caused. She elbowed Xiaoyu in the face, breaking her nose and causing a small amount of blood to run from it. Xiaoyu's stomach lurched from the dizziness. She couldn't defend herself, and Devil Asuka was not about to provide any mercy. She continued to bash Xiaoyu in the head and face with elbows. Then a headbutt. Xiaoyu dropped to the ground, cradling her broken right arm, her eyes open and glazed, distant-looking.
Asuka spun suddenly around and caught Julia sneaking up behind her with a spinning backfist. The impact snapped her head back and she dropped the needle containing the reversion serum. Julia grunted, and Devil Asuka fired a kick into her stomach. It doubled her over in pain.
"My, you're a big, strapping, strong looking girl" Devil Asuka said, voice tinged with pleasure. "I wonder who has the stronger stomach, you or Christie? Hmm. I'm definitely game for finding out." Asuka headlocked Julia. Julia flexed her stomach muscles, and when Asuka hit her with the knee, she barely flinched. Asuka raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You were ready for me? Aw. The results are skewed already! Oh well, an unscientific approach it is..." And she continued rifling knees into Julia's stomach. When Asuka couldn't get much of a reaction out of her, she got testy, like a petulant child not getting their way. "You aren't any fun! Alright, flex these muscles!" Asuka kneed Julia again, but in the face this time. The unexpected blow to the jaw caused her legs to go slack momentarily as she was stunned and saw stars. Asuka kneed her in the jaw again. Julia groaned and dropped to her knees again. Now that Julia wasn't tightening her stomach muscles to defend against the knees, Asuka began laying them in again. This time she got the desired forceful exhalations. "That's better! Now you got it." Asuka proceeded to knee Julia's stomach into jello. Finally she dropped Julia on the ground, who rolled into a ball holding her stomach and groaning.
"Oh, you can't possibly think that was all, can you... please. I am not finished with you, you big strong lout."
Asuka picked Julia up to her feet, then facing her, she put one arm around her neck and hooked one of her thick powerful legs at the knee with the other. "You like your suplexes, so here's one of my own... this is called a capture suplex." Asuka arced backward, throwing Julia overhead. Julia landed with a thud hard on the ground, and rolled a little, coming to rest flat on her back. Her mouth was open slightly, and she was breathing hard. Asuka looked down at her. "They hurt, don't they? That's what those feel like. Do I hear an encore?" Asuka picked Julia up by the arm and neck, her devil-enhanced strength allowing her to deadlift Julia effortlessly. She put Julia in a face to face half-nelson style hold, and threw her again with a head and arm suplex. Julia slammed to the ground again.
Xiaoyu tried to blink away the dizziness she felt from the repeated blows to the head. The needle had landed next to her. Shaking her head, she grabbed it and decided she needed to wait for her time to strike, else all could be lost.
Devil Asuka was too busy with Julia to notice Xiaoyu. She picked up a thick tree branch, and swung it into Julia's stomach like she were swinging a hammer trying to ring a bell. Julia gagged and coughed, curling into a tight ball and shaking with pain. Asuka put her arms around Julia's neck and began to choke her. Julia started to gag. Asuka pulled her backwards so that Julia was on top of her, unable to fight back. She tightened her grip, and Julia couldn't even make gagging noises, as she was being choked so hard she couldn't even exhale. As the long seconds ticked by, her inability to breathe began to take its effect. Julia's limbs began to feel heavy, then she had a hard time keeping her eyes open. She felt like suffocating weights were being piled on her.
Devil Asuka was so preoccupied with beating Julia that she failed to notice Xiaoyu sneak up behind her. She quickly stuck the needle in Asuka's neck and pushed down hard on the plunger to expel the contents rapidly. Asuka swung an arm up and brushed her off. Xiaoyu darted away. "You! I guess I haven't taken care of you yet! Why you insolent little rodent... " Asuka flexed her arms and built up a laser charge in her eyes. Xiaoyu could do nothing but watch it happen. Then Asuka froze. The terrible red light in her eyes slowly waned, then extinguished itself. Asuka dropped to her hands and knees. "Unh... wha... what did you do to me?" Devil Asuka stretched an arm out toward Xiaoyu. "You... will suffer.. I will make you suf... fer..." Devil Asuka slumped to the ground unconscious. Her devil transformation undid itself, with assistance from her natural antigen and the serum Julia had shot into her. Xiaoyu had managed to get her right in the jugular vein, which very quickly carried it to her heart, a lucky strike.
Xiaoyu continued to try to shake the fuzziness, which was slowly waning. She checked on Julia. "Are you alright?"
Julia was coughing and gasping for air. When she finally settled down, she nodded. "I'm alright. I'm pretty beat up, but it could be worse. How are you doing?"
Xiaoyu shook her head again. "Ugh.. I keep getting dizzy spells. My.. my head.. I might have a concussion. I keep feeling like I'm going to fall over."
"Are you alright enough to help me get Asuka back to the lab?"
"I think I can do that. Here, let's do it this way." Xiaoyu put one of Asuka's arms over her shoulder. "Here, you get that arm. We'll carry her like this. We have to go slow, I'm... not.." She cleared her head again. "I'm not 100% here. I'm having a bit of a rough time, but I need to help. She is my friend, too, you know."
"Alright, let's go then."
_____
*Chapter 6*
"You found her!" Jin met Julia and Xiaoyu at the lab.
"Yeah, Xiao had a lot of guts and called her out to a fight. The plan was that I was going to sneak up on her and stick her in the neck, but, well... as you can see from the looks of us, it really didn't go that way."
"Well, how did it go? I see you still got her at least."
"Yeah, well considering what it cost us physically, I hope to the Spirits you're grateful. She lasered me through the bushes, she knew I was there. I hit a tree and blacked out momentarily. Xiaoyu got her ass kicked, but she put up a decent fight. Then I tried to stick her, but she punched me and then proceeded to kick my shit in. She was choking me to death when Xiao here managed to jab her in the neck. She almost ate a laser blast for her trouble but it kicked in and knocked her out, undoing the devil transformation. We carried her here."
"Does she still possess the Devil Gene?"
"Yeah, it's just in remission. I suspect she was unable to control it, and she's been in devil form for the last week. I also suspect her strange antigen kept her from being able to manifest completely as the devil, which probably saved my life and Lili's when she hit us with those lasers. It was less of a cutting edge and more of a strike, like being hit with a large blunt object like a hammer. Damned lucky development for us. I don't think we'd be here right now if it weren't for that.
"That and the fact the Devil Gene is in a body it's unaccustomed to, and that is unaccustomed to it. That's probably a factor as well" said Jin.
"Yeah, that could definitely be it. The scientific side of me really wants to find out. The emotional side of me just wants to help Asuka as soon as possible." Julia turned to her assistant scientists. "Brad, can you and Samantha strap Asuka to that table tightly? If what I think is going to happen happens, she's going to need it."
"Jin. How did the Devil Gene leave you?"
"I lost a fight to Kazuya. I was unconscious, I don't know. I'm sorry I can't help with that. I was unconscious. When I woke up, Asuka was unconscious too. I don't know what happened to her."
"I can tell you", said a voice.
"Asuka! You're.. are you... are you human again?" Jin asked, clearly worried.
Asuka smiled. "For now. Oh, Julia... Xiaoyu.. I'm so, so sorry for everything I did to you. I feel just awful. It... it was terrible. Like I was a prisoner in my own mind. I could see what was happening, but it... it wasn't me, I... I couldn't stop her. It was very much a separate entity controlling my body. Is that what it feels like to you, Jin?"
Jin nodded. "It used to, until I gained greater dominance over it. Evidently, my dominance was not great enough. Can you tell me what happened after I was knocked out? How did this whole thing start?"
Asuka looked ashamed. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you. I shouldn't have come along. I... I hid behind a large tree far away so that I wouldn't affect you and Kazuya. He knocked you out and I came to your aid. I tried to wake you, but then this... this red ball of.. something.. came out of your back... I watched it for a while and then... and then... I woke up, and I had these wings and horns, which were smaller than yours, and I... I was doing these awful things... I hurt so many people... Christie.. is she alright? Are you guys... oh, Lili was in there too, but I'm sure she deserved it. Maybe she will be too terrified of me to mess with me anymore. But you guys and Christie, I feel really badly about. You guys are my friends, and I did such terrible things to you..."
"We'll be fine" said Xiaoyu, arm in a sling. "It wasn't you doing those things, it was the devil gene. We understand, and we aren't mad at you, okay? We just want to do whatever we can to help you. If you need to hear the words... you're forgiven."
Asuka smiled sheepishly. "Thanks. I don't really deserve such complete forgiveness, but I always knew I had great friends."
Xiaoyu smiled. "Oh, you might be happy to know that since you... well, devil you.. kicked the tar out of Lili, she's been nothing but a huge kitten, kind and courteous to everyone. It's quite amusing to watch! I want to see what happens when you talk to her... after this is all over of course."
Asuka laughed. "Oh yeah, that sounds like something I need to do!"
Julia spoke up. "I hate to interrupt the feel-good here, but Asuka, we're ready to start the procedure. We're going to try to draw the Devil Gene out of you, alright? You're strapped in to this table because, well, we have no idea how this is going to go. If the Gene manifests itself, we kind of don't want you going on a rampage again. I think we understand it well enough to do this. It might hurt, I just... I don't know what's going to happen."
"Whatever it is, I'm ready for it. I'll actively fight it out of me if I have to, now that I'm me again and I know what it feels like in my head."
"Alright, let's start."
Julia drew a needle, and injected Asuka with it. "This will help prevent the Gene from manifesting too badly. It's more of that reversion serum," said Julia. The needle slid into Asuka's arm and drained.
Asuka sighed and relaxed as the serum went to work.
"Next we need to administer a jolt. A small electrical shock to a non-critical part of the body, like, say, your arm. This will stimulate the Gene, hopefully making it uncomfortable and leaving you." Jula took an ECG paddle and charged it, then applied it to Asuka's arm and activated it on a low-level basis. Asuka's arm jumped a little. Julia turned up the voltage a little and did it again. Again, nothing.
"Hey, maybe we could-" Asuka started. Then her body went tense all over and she clenched her teeth hard. "Nnnnngggh!! Aaahhh!!" She rocked hard against the restraints. Her heart monitor and other vital signs began to accelerate. Her blood pressure rose.
"The Gene is fighting her antigen! It looks like... wait.." Julia flipped to the X-ray scope. "Her antigen has adapted to the Gene and is fighting it. The Devil Gene is trying to kill her and find a new host! Jin, we're going to need to you be alert. If that Gene leaves her, grab it fast. We know you can control it."
Jin nodded and held Asuka's hand, balled into a tight fist. "Asuka, hang on! We'll get you through this."
"The worst part of science is the unpredictability. You just never know what you're going to come up against, or what to do with it. Wait. Jin, didn't you say the Devil Gene left you when you were unconscious?"
"It did."
"Maybe it thought you were dying and jumped to a new host... her. Oh my God, look..."
Asuka's whole body was tense as a bowstring. Random devil mutations were appearing and disappearing at an alarming rate. Horns would grow and disappear. Her eyes changed colour dozens of times. Her devil personality would assert itself and then go into remission. "Guys, what's happening to me?? I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you all! Help me, please! It hurts! You'll all suffer a thousand lifetimes over!" Three short laser blasts fired into the ceiling. "I'll drink your blood! I'll pull your heart out of your chest and eat it while you watch dying!"
Julia needed to refocus. As Asuka was morphing between varying degrees of human and devil, Julia spoke to Jin. "Jin. You said you were unconscious, right?"
"Yes. I don't know what happened."
"Is it possible the Devil Gene thought you were dying and jumped to a new host? And it happened to be her?"
Jin looked thoughtful. "It is certainly plausible."
Julia smiled. "Then all we need to do is make the gene think Asuka is dying... she doesn't actually have to be. Samantha, rig up a double dose of Triclazine, fast." To Jin, she said "It's the strongest muscle relaxer and sedative we have. It's stronger than anything in production right now. The benefits of being on a scientific team." Samantha produced the needle. "Hang on Asuka, we got you..." Julia plunged the needle into her arm and drained it. Nearly immediately, Asuka stopped thrashing and immediately relaxed, her body's muscles all unwinding. Asuka sighed with relaxation and settled back into the table in sleep.
They waited.
And they waited.
Finally, the mutations subsided, and she remained human. Xiaoyu, Julia and Jin had no idea what to do or whether it would work at all. Asuka's vital signs were slow, from the effects of the powerful sedative.
The ball of red plasma slowly worked its way out of her chest. Jin cupped his hands around it, absorbing it back through his arms, up to his shoulders. "It's done. She's free from its grip, but... is it too late?"
Asuka was unconscious on the table. The three of them started undoing the straps. "We don't need these anymore" Julia said. "We'll just need to monitor her for a bit to make sure her vitals are good. That sedative will probably take a good while to wear off. We'll keep here here for a couple days. Samantha, please take her to the monitoring wing. Give her anything she asks for- food, water, a blanket, etc." Samantha nodded and they transferred her to a wheeled bed, and she was soon carted away.
"Well... it's over" Jin said.
Julia nodded. "This part of the journey is, anyway. But she's probably going to be mentally at war with what happened. It's going to be up to you, as her cousin and as someone who knows the Devil Gene inside out, to comfort her and help her through this ordeal. She will have a lot of questions, ones that you can provide the answers to. She will definitely need you. And thank you for your help."
Jin bowed his head and left the lab.
_____
*Chapter 7*
Asuka gathered her friends Julia, Christie and Xiaoyu in her makeshift hospital room. "I can't believe you guys still like me. I absolutely don't deserve your friendship. I seriously injured every one of you. I cannot possibly even begin apologizing enough. I have had a lot of time to think about it these past couple days. I'm so, so very sorry. I just want to cry all the time." Even as she spoke, tears fell from her eyes.
Xiaoyu, ever the kind-hearted one, was unsurprisingly the first to speak. "Asuka, of course we all forgive you. It wasn't really you to begin with. We all know your situation. We all came face to face with you, or the devil you. It just... quite literally was not you. I think I speak for the three of us here when I say that you're of course completely forgiven. No permanent damage was done, we will all recover. My dizzy spells are already subsiding."
"How is your arm?"
"Well, it hurts some, but the cast is at least really cool. It's hot pink! I picked it myself. Hey, would you sign it for me?" Xiaoyu was chipper about the whole thing. It made Asuka laugh.
"I knew there was a reason we were such good friends. You can always make me laugh, even when I don't feel like I have any reason to. But I'm not totally unarmed in the humour department..." she drew a big sappy heart next to her name and wrote "OMG BFF" next to it. Everyone laughed at that.
Turning to Christie, she asked "So? How about you, are you recovered yet?"
"I'm on the road to it, still a lot of bruising. It looks like an oil painting. But hey, I'll survive. Don't worry about me. How are you doing? I mean that whole "becoming a devil" thing could not have been easy..."
"I'm... well, like I said, I want to cry a lot. I remember everything. It was like... watching someone else do all that stuff, using my body to do it. I couldn't do anything to stop it. All I could do was watch in horror."
"Yeah" said Christie. "But none of us are permanently injured, and we all know what was going on, so... don't worry about it. None of us hate you, none of us are mad. Hell, we were all worried for you and your well being. I had a bit of a pill scare I frightened you all with, and yet you were all there to help me through it. Well, I was here for you. So really, don't cry about it. We're all happy you're back." Christie gave Asuka a hug.
"Thanks, guys. You really are the best."
"Well, Asuka, I'm off the clock here but I'm going through your results... everything looks fine. How about we get you out of here?" Julia said.
"That sounds great to me."
Xiaoyu chipped in. "Hey guys! Forget supper back at the compund tonight, I think we all need to celebrate this with a pizza night!"
They all agreed. As they were walking along, they spotted Lili coming towards them. "Hey guys" said Asuka. "Follow my lead. I'm going to see how Lili likes being bullied a little. See how she like it when it's done to her." More loudly, so Lili could hear, she started ahead of them. "Okay guys, I'll see you back at the compound!" She made like she was looking back at the group and not watching as she bumped into Lili. Asuka pretended to get angry. "You again! You didn't learn your lesson the first time?" She pretended to get angry. Lili had seen her devil transformation, being the cause of the catalyst of anger for it. Lili immediately panicked. "A-a-a-Asuka! I-I-I, I uh, uh.. I'm sor-sorry.. I'll be more careful. I'm sorry, please don't get angry! It was my fault... ple-please forgive me.." Lili was almost begging. The trio behind them snickered quietly, out of earshot.
"Why should I?" bellowed Asuka, trying not to laugh herself. "You know what happens when I get angry, right??"
"B-b-but they were hel-helping you for that!" Lili was shaking.
"Well I have some bad news... they weren't able to help me, so... I'm stuck with the Devil Gene. They... oh God, no.. please, no, not again! I can't take this again! NOOO!"
Lili's eyes went wide with fear. She was stuttering and tripping over words. "I'm so sorry, please.. please don't hurt me!"
Asuka started to laugh, having to put her hands on her knees. The group behind them followed suit. "Hooo man! Boy, your face! I've never seen such a look of fear! Well, I mean I did once, before I nearly decapitated you with that laser, but damn. I got you good." She slapped Lili on the arm, letting her know she had been had. "Oh man. The look on your face! Money can't buy some of the best things in life!" Asuka rejoined her friends, who all had a great laugh. Lili turned beet red in frustration and embarrassment and stormed off muttering curses.
"Asuka, I didn't know you had it in you to be like that!" Xiaoyu exclaimed, laughing.
"Well, you know me, I AM a little devil..."
THE END
_____
*Chapter 1*
"No, Asuka. You know the effect you have on the Devil Gene. If I am to defeat Kazuya, I must have my full strength... and he must be at his. Otherwise it is a hollow victory. You must stay here at the compound."
"Jin, I... I just worry. I don't want to see anything happen to you..."
"I appreciate your concern. But my powers are as good as Kazuya's. I will be fine. But you must stay safe. Please do not come after me."
"o..okay."
Jin Kazama took a brooch from his dresser. It was given to him by his mother, Jun. Nobody had seen her for years, and she was presumed dead. It was all he had left of her. He headed out the door into the night. Asuka waited until he was out of sight, and then keeping her distance, sneaked off after Jin.
After a few moments, she came to the clearing Jin and Kazuya had agreed upon meeting at. She hid behind a thick tree, making sure she didn't have an effect on their Devil Genes. Something that had never been fully explained caused the Devil Gene to regress, weakening its effect. She needed to make sure she didn't give herself away.
"So... you came after all. I expected nothing less."
"And miss the chance to take you out once and for all? I think not."
"Kid, don't delude yourself. A volcano could not stop me, what makes you think you can?"
"Because," Jin said, as he closed his eyes and began his transformation, "A volcano is not a devil."
Kazuya sneered, and began his own devil transformation. "Hah! In that case, come at me."
Asuka watched in a combination of fear and fascination. She had never seen one of Jin's transformations before. She watched as the colour of his skin seemed to drain away, as if a valve had opened up. His hair lengthened and went jet black. Long black curled horns grew on his head. His eyes became golden, glowing yellow. Finally, a pair of wings as black as midnight shot out from his shoulder blades. Asuka could not help but gasp slightly. Jin's pant legs tore, chains wrapped around one leg. With that, Jin had gone into recession, replaced by Devil Jin. This Jin was without mercy or compassion. Asuka had stopped one of his out of control rampages once just by managing to get near enough so that whatever antigen in her was able to manifest and reverse the Devil Gene. He had attained total control over it since then. She knew if she were discovered, she could have her life ended by a well placed laser blast, never having the opportunity to get close enough. And she knew it would probably be Kazuya.
Jin and Kazuya began to fight, punches, kicks, and parries flying like a well choreographed ballet of violence. Laser blasts raked the clearing ground, carving deep grooves into the earth. The two parried, riposted, and attacked back and forth for what seemed ages, neither man - or rather, beast at this point - getting an advantage. Finally recklessness set in, trading a blow taken to be able to land one. Kazuya came in with a punch to Jin's jaw, but it left him open to a retaliatory spinning kick. The chain caught Kazuya in the side of the head, opening him up. He bled purple. Jin landed a well placed scissor kick. Kazuya hit the ground, and spun, sweeping Jin off his feet. Jin hit the floor, and Kazuya fired a short laser blast into Jin's chest. Jin yelled out in pain. Asuka had to force herself not to go to his aid. However it did not cut through Jin's body as it may have anyone else, due to the Devil Gene. Jin returned fire, but Kazuya dodged. As he moved his head, Jin swung his fist up into Kazuya. Kazuya's head had arced right into Jin's fist, doubling the impact. It knocked him loopy enough that Jin was able to push him to the ground while he recovered. Both the devils stood facing each other. The battle had gone on an hour and fatigue was now starting to set in. Kazuya sneaked under the arc of one on Jin's punches, and headbutted him in the face, knocking him backward. Jin shook his head to clear it. Kazuya fired a laser blast. Jin met it with his own, the two trying to overpower each other. Kazuya's purple laser blast met Jin's red one. The two appeared to push each other back and forth, struggling for dominance. Exertion began to appear on their faces, neither wanting to be the one to quit first. As the battle of attrition wore on, Asuka tried to will Jin into it. Finally the two dropped to their knees, their devil energy spent. They continued the fight, as humans. It would not last long as they had already spent their energy. Kazuya parried a punch, then landed a kick to Jin's stomach. Jin doubled over, and Kazuya drove his arms into his back like a sledgehammer. It knocked Jin to the ground. Finally, he stomped on Jin's head, knocking him out. Asuka tried not to scream. Kazuya sneered at Jin and limped off, having won the fight, but only just.
When Asuka was certain Kazuya had gone, she ran over to Jin and knelt beside him. "Jin? Jin. Wake up... say something. Are you alright? Jin!" She shook him gently by the shoulders.
The Devil Gene in Jin reacted to her touch, sensing one in the Kazama-Mishima bloodline. As Asuka pleaded with Jin to wake up, a ball of red plasma-looking energy rose up from his back. Asuka looked wonderingly at it, watching it slowly float upwards. On one knee, she watched it float at eye level for a moment. Without warning, the ball of plasma surged into her chest. Red light illuminated her torso for a moment, making it look like she were glowing. Asuka arched her back and neck in pain, and screamed at the top of her lungs, but she was unaware she was doing so. Finally the glow subsided, and Asuka slumped over to the ground facedown, unconscious.
_____
*Chapter 2*
Asuka woke some hours later. Shaking her head, she sat up. She looked around. She was back at the compound in her room. Jin was with her, looking both worried and angry.
"Finally, you are awake. I'm glad for that, but I specifically told you not to follow me, and yet you did. Why did you disobey me like that?"
Asuka was a little hurt. "I was concerned... I.. I had to make sure nothing bad would happen."
"I can handle my own business, Asuka."
Asuka felt a surge of anger. She got up out of bed. "I.. I need to go outside and think. It's 2:30 AM but I'm not tired." She went out the door. Jin followed her.
"Asuka, we are not done here yet. I want to know why you disobeyed me."
Asuka clenched her teeth. "I told you, already! I was worried!"
Jin repeated, "I can handle my own business!"
Asuka began to yell, something she very rarely did. "Yeah, I saw how well you handled it! You got your ass kicked, knocked out with a stomp to the head! Way to handle your business, Jin! That's handling it, is it? Losing the fight? If that's how a Kazama handles business, sometimes I wish I weren't a Kazama!"
Jin was taken aback. "Asuka, please. Calm down. I'm sorry I was abrupt with you. Jun would not approve.."
Asuka's anger had reached a boiling point. "Well she isn't here! I don't care one bit about what she thinks, or would think!"
Now Jin was getting mad. "Asuka, don't you ever talk about my mother like that again. She is your aunt, you know." (Well, Jin and Asuka are cousins, sooo...)
Asuka had ber back turned to Jin. She didn't answer.
Jin strode over to Asuka, and grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. As he did, Asuka met him with a punch to his jaw. It caught him by surprise and knocked him to the ground in a sitting position. Fury etched her face. "You get your damn hands off me. You touch me again and I'll sever whatever body part you do it with." Asuka turned and stalked off angrily into the night. Jin did not follow, too surprised and disappointed to do anything.
_____
Asuka angrily muttered to herself, walking along the moonlit path through a large garden. She was so caught up in what had just happened she bumped into Lili. "Hey! Why don't you-" Lili was cut off as Asuka angrily shoved her to the ground. "I'm not in the mood for your ignorant crap, Lili. You would do well to save it tonight." Asuka went to leave. "Hey! You can't do that to me and get away with it? Who in the hell do you think you are? Hey!"
Asuka lost the grip on her anger. She wheeled around to face Lili. She glowered at her. Lili stopped short. Asuka's eyes were glowing a lurid red, terrible pinpricks in the night. Lili blanched. "Wh- what... Asuka? Wait, I..."
Asuka balled her fists and spread her arms to the side. Her skin colour took on a slightly pale looking grey pallor. Short horns grew from her head. Black, crystalline-looking wings shot from her shoulder blades, not as large as Jin's or Kazuya's had been, but large enough to put fear into Lili. "Who do I think I am, huh? I will show you just who I am."
"Asuka? What the... how..?"
Asuka rushed forward and began to mercilessly pummel Lili. Her attack was largely undisciplined, more of a rugged street brawl. She elbowed Lili in the jaw, and followed up with a kick to the stomach. Then she kneed Lili in the side of the head. It stunned her, and she fell to the ground. Lili cowered in fear for her life. Asuka was without compassion, kicking Lili in the face. Her head snapped back and she fell to her back. Asuka stomped hard on her stomach, causing Lili to choke and driving the air out of her. She felt ribs crack.
Lili stood up, and turned into another punch which rocked her head to the left. Another to the right. Back and forth it went, battering her completely loopy. Finally, another hook landed which spun her in a half circle. She crashed hard to the concrete ground.
Shaking her head to clear the rolling fog, she slowly struggled to her feet. Turning around, she saw Asuka, who seemed to be shrouded in some sort of darkness even as the moonlight illuminated the scene around them.
"Little girl", Asuka said, voice haunted with a slight echo, "You asked me who I thought I am. I am the living embodiment of purity's dark side... and now I have been completely awoken. I am Devil Asuka." Twin pinpricks of a horrible, lurid red light appeared, and got brighter. It lit up Asuka's slightly demonic looking face. Lili's eyes widened in white terror. "And you... are my first victim." A laser blast suddenly cut the night, and slammed into Lili's chest. It flung her backwards fifty feet, where her unconscious body came to rest. Blood streaked her face and smeared on her arms and hands. She lay facedown, a small pool of blood forming. Luckily for her, the Devil Gene that took up residence in Asuka was slightly mitigated by the natural antigen she had, and as such the laser blast, while forceful, was not lethal.
"And I will not be stopped, especially by the likes of a simple human weakling as yourself." Asuka's hands went to her eyes as she rubbed away the pain from the laser blast, as Asuka was unaccustomed to such a sensation. After it subsided, she glided off into the night.
_____
*Chapter 3*
Xiaoyu, Julia and Christie had assembled for breakfast as usual. "Good morning all!" Xiaoyu said, chipper as seemingly always. Julia and Christie greeted her in response. "Hey... where's Asuka?"
Julia looked over at the empty chair. "Huh... that's weird. I hadn't noticed, to be honest. Where IS she?"
Christie put her fork down. "I'll go check her room. It's weird, she's always here..." She darted off upstairs. Julia and Xiaoyu looked at each other. "I mean maybe she missed the call, it happens... sometimes my alarm doesn't go off. I slept until 11:30 once! My whole day was just shot."
"I hear you", said Xiaoyu. I get that way when I have too much on my mind and I meditate. I feel better later, but I can lose entire hours that way."
Christie came back down the stairs. "Guys, she isn't there. Should we worry now?"
"Well," Julia said, "if she isn't back by tonight, I would worry. Maybe she just had something she had to do."
The day came and went with no sign of Asuka anywhere.
"Alright, I'm going to go looking for her. I'll text you guys if I find her." Christie put on her shoes and left.
_____
Snap. Devil Asuka broke the neck of another rabbit. She had been hunting small woodland creatures and killing them for fun, giggling with delight every time the life drained from a poor creature. She had killed dozens of mice, a few sparrows, and a lot of birds. She watched as the rabbit squirmed helplessly, then went into its death throes and fell limp in her hands, the life drained from it. She tossed it aside. Everything became boring after a while. She heard Asuka's name being called from a distance. "A new playmate! Oh, I so love making new friends..." Devil Asuka slinked through the trees silently, killing woodland critters on the way for the fun of it. She spotted a deer. As she started toward it, she heard her name again, close. "Asuka? Are you there?" Christie saw Lili near the trees that led into woods, still unconscious. With some hesitation, she went to check on her. She gently shook Lili. "Lili? Hey, wake up... are you alright?" Lili stirred. "Unnnnhhh...." As she raised her head, Christie saw the dried blood on her face and arms. "Whoa, what happened? Lili? Who did this?"
"A... Asuka... she... laser...." Lili's head dropped back into her arms with a moan.
"No, no no no, Lili, I need you awake! What about Asuka? Lasers? I don't get it... Lili! Wake up!" Christie shook her harder.
Devil Asuka planted a knee into Christie's back. Christie arched backward in pain. Asuka put an arm around her neck in a Dragon Sleeper choke, and began to crank. "Oh, I'll make sure you get it, Christie. You'll get it gooood..." She pulled Christie onto her back on top of her, and began to choke the daylights out of her. She cranked Christie's neck backwards harder. Christie began to choke and heave. Asuka scissored her legs around Christie's stomach, further restricting her breathing. Just before Christie blacked out, Asuka let her go. Christie began to forcefully cough and gasp deeply for air. As she stood up, Asuka picked up a stout tree branch. She slammed it over Christie's head. A kaleidoscope explosion of colour and light went off in Christie's vision, like fireworks. Christie sunk to the ground, dazed badly.
"I have a nice little session of pain in mind for you... Let's put those nice hard stomach muscles to the test, shall we?" She picked Christie up into a standing position, bent over, arm around her neck in a guillotine choke position with no pressure, just enough to keep her there. "Tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to start kneeing you in that nice hard stomach of yours and see how many it takes me to turn those hard muscles into oatmeal." She then kneelifted Christie in the stomach. Christie flinched and grunted. Devil Asuka wound up, and kneed her again. Another grunt. Asuka continued to lay in kneelifts. Christie was starting to flag. By the eighth knee, the wind was driven out of her, and she exhaled hard. "Ahh, there we are... But I'm sure you can take a little more..." Devil Asuka took a lot of pleasure in continuing to drill knees into Christie. Christie was starting to feel sick. Devil Asuka kneed Christie again, but only at a quarter of the force she had been. "Haha.. that was a tease. I just wanted to feel you convulse..." Devil Asuka ran her left hand over Christie's back and sides, right arm still pinning her neck. "Mmm... You're definitely a strong one. That's why it's so, so much fun to-" she punctuated the next words with a kneelift- "break you like this." Christie began to dry heave with every knee. "Oh come on, it's only been fifteen! I'm sure you can keep going! I know I can..." Another kneelift, another forceful expulsion of air. Christie's stomach muscles spasmed in reaction. Devil Asuka took a lot of pleasure in the feeling. "That's right... I've battered those poor muscles into goo. And yet... I want to see how many more you can take..." Another kneelift. Christie's stomach jackknifed in response. She fell limply to her knees, neck still trapped. "That was nice..." said Devil Asuka, "Now how about an encore." She pulled Christie to her feet and began rapidly kneeing her. Finally Christie's stomach muscles could take no more, and she vomited on the grass. Asuka looked at her with false concern. "Awww, now she's gone and gotten sick." Another heave totally emptied the contents of her stomach. She wiped her mouth and spit, and tried to crawl away. Devil Asuka drove a straight-down elbow into Christie's neck, knocking her down onto her now-tender stomach. Christie did not move.
"Well, isn't that a shame! Oh well... you did rather surprise me with the knee gauntlet. I thought for sure you'd have called it quits long before 23." She rolled Christie onto her back. Christie's limp body easily turned over. Devil Asuka surveyed her handiwork. Christie's stomach was already a ghastly, oily looking purple. "One for the road," Asuka said, and swung a punch into Christie's badly bruised stomach. Christie didn't react. "Have a nice sleep" Asuka said, and disappeared back into the woods.
Lili slowly looked up. "Man, Christie took a pounding for checking on me... I've got to do what I can to help her." She put one of Christie's arms over her shoulders, and picked her up. "Come on, you. Let's get you back to the compound and get some help."
_____
*Chapter 4*
"God, what the hell happened to you two??" Julia asked in astonishment.
"Well, let's just say we know what happened to Asuka... Can we get a hand here? Some medical aid might be nice too..." Lili handed off Christie and then flopped into a chair. "Oof! Unh... man. I think I have a concussicussion." Lili stopped. "Wait, what did I just say? Oh, man..." she held her head again. "She needs help first though, Asuka kneed the crap out of her stomach, she's probably in a lot of pain."
"So wait" Julia said. "Where the hell is Asuka?"
"I may have a concussion, but I know what I saw... it... it looked like Asuka, but she had wings, and her eyes glowed this unholy, terrible red... she had horns..."
Julia and Xiaoyu looked at each other. "Uhhhh... that doesn't sound good." Xiaoyu said.
"Yeah", Julia replied. "If I didn't know any better, I would say you were describing Devil Jin."
"Yeah, but Asuka doesn't have a Devil Gene. Hell, she has the anti Devil Gene or whatever that is nobody knows about her."
Lili chimed in. "Hey, that might be why my head didn't fly off when she hit me with a laser... I mean she did send me flying backwards, but I mean I'm okay otherwise... she couldn't generate enough power to really mess me up."
"What about Christie? She looks pretty messed up."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I am not messed up... but with Christie, she got her in some sort of headlock and then hit her with knees... I don't even know how many. I pretended to be unconscious so that Asuka wouldn't attack me too, so that I could get up and get us back here. You can think it's terrible of me to not have gotten up and tried helping her, but if she had taken me out too... like, again... I may not have been alive to tell you this stuff. We have to find her."
Julia looked thoughtful. Xiaoyu spoke up. "Well, how do we find her? And what do we do with her when we do?"
Julia was lost in her thoughts.
"Julia?" Xiaoyu nudged her. "Earth calling!"
Julia came back to reality with a start. "Oh! I'm sorry, I was just thinking... is that really a devil version of Asuka? If so, I may have some research that can help... I was working with G-Corporation on the Devil Gene, it's the GENOCELL project. We had found a way to recess the Devil Gene, when Jin was going apeshit with it. I can make up some of the serum, and combined with Asuka's natural inhibitor, it may be enough to drive it out of her. But how did it get into her to begin with?"
"I may have an answer."
Everyone turned to look at Jin. "I challenged Kazuya to a fight. I very specifically told Asuka she could not follow me, but apparently she did. I lost the fight, and when I woke up, she was unconscious next to me. I brought her back to the compound. She was really mad, she hit me, and left. I haven't seen her since. But I can't seem to transform myself into the devil. I am thinking the gene transferred itself to her. Why, I don't know. But Julia, perhaps it would not hurt to whip up a batch of that serum anyway, just in case this really is Asuka, and she really is a devil."
Julia nodded and headed to the G-Corp laboratories.
"In the meantime" said Xiaoyu, "We need some way to draw her out. I think I need to be that person. We're good friends, so... hopefully I can get through to her."
_____
*Chapter 5*
"Well, Julia? How's it going?" Xiaoyu asked at breakfast one day.
Julia wiped her hands on her white lab coat. "Ugh. It's been a week and I still can't get the formula just right! I'm missing something. It's like something in the ingredient list is missing. And we can't even test on Jin, cause well, you know."
"Can I take a look? I like computers. People don't really know that about me."
"What the hell, why not. It can't hurt. Let's go." Julia led Xiaoyu to her workstation. Her shoes clacked smartly on the floor.
Xiaoyu began to poke around in the computer, opening windows and files. She looked like a natural at it. "Wait... what if.." Xiaoyu closed the windows and typed in a command line. The computer started spewing code.
"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" Julia asked worriedly.
"I'm searching for overwritten files. Sometimes a fresh outlook is all you need. You've been tied up with this thing for a week working on something else. Maybe you just need a new perspective. Ah, wait, see this?" She called up an innocuous looking file. "Watch this." Xiaoyu ran it through a decrypter. In an hour she had it cracked. "Look at that!" she exclaimed. "This is why your formula keeps breaking down. This is the original! It looks like someone overwrote it... I don't know how to tell you this, Julia, but you better watch your batch. These G-Corp guys... I dunno. Someone tampered with it. But if you cook this up, this is what you need."
"That is amazing, Xiao. Thanks so much. You've just given us the breakthrough we need."
Julia went off to mix another batch of serum. Xiaoyu went back to her room to plan how she was going to draw out Asuka.
_____
Xiaoyu stood in the middle of the clearing where Asuka first inherited the Devil Gene from Jin. "Asuka Kazama! If you are around, I would speak with you!" She was met with silence. She called out again. "Asuka! I know you can hear me. Come here so we can talk!" Again, no answer. Xiaoyu played the card she didn't want to have to. "If you won't talk, come and fight me then, coward!"
Xiaoyu saw a shadow pass by. She looked up. Devil Asuka was descending in a circular motion, like a vulture. She flitted to the ground. "Xiaoyu? You seriously challenge me? Have you not seen what I did to Lili and Christie?"
"What, you mean attack them with their backs turned? Oh yeah, I've seen that. How about you do something about it when someone is looking straight at you?"
"My, my. When did you get such courage? Oh... I know when." Devil Asuka charged a laser blast, then fired it into the underbrush. Julia cried out in pain and hit the ground. Asuka rubbed her eyes, clearing the pain. "When you had your little friend there waiting in the wings." Xiaoyu gasped, eyes wide. "Ah, how quickly the confidence melts away. Much like a deer in the headlights. I accept your little challenge. Now... let's see what you can do."
Xiaoyu had no choice but to stand and fight now. She circled around Devil Asuka, who simply stood straight up, never meeting Xiaoyu's gaze, looking straight ahead. Xiaoyu narrowed her eyes. What is she up to, Xiaoyu wondered. She tried to sneak in with a palm strike, but Asuka parried it, never moving more than her arm, again without even looking. Xiaoyu tried a quick one-two, but again it was parried without even any visual contact. Xiaoyu was beginning to get unnerved. She tried a spinning flurry, something she was remarkably good at. She could land five or six solid blows before you could even blink. But Asuka blocked every one of them, catching the last punch by her wrist. Xiaoyu looked scared. Devil Asuka grinned. "I do so love playing with my toys... unfortunately I have such a terrible habit. I am clumsy, and my toys... they break easily." Suddenly she forced Xiaoyu's right arm backward, breaking it. Xiaoyu cried out in pain, wiping a tear away with her other hand. "Ow, ow, ow.." she let out. Asuka drove a knee into Xiaoyu's stomach. She doubled over coughing. "Oh come on, you're not nearly so fun! The capoeira girl lasted at least eight before she got to that point! Man... how disappointing. I suppose my new toy isn't very much fun to play with. Oh well... I might as well see how fragile it is." She planted a left hook on Xiaoyu's jaw that spun her around. A spinning round kick to the face stumbled her again. Smirking, Devil Asuka advanced on her. Xiaoyu caught her off-guard with a rising crescent kick to the jaw that snapped her head back. She had to press the attack. She came in with a left punch and a spinning wheel kick to the head. Asuka bent forward, holding her head. Xiaoyu soccer kicked her in the face, standing her up. Devil Asuka held her nose, snapping back. Xiaoyu tried to press forward with a left punch again, but Asuka caught it and threw a hook kick that struck Xiaoyu in the back of the head, stunning her again.
Julia opened her eyes, and blinked away tears. "Am... am I dead? Spirits, is this the afterlife?" Her answer was the sound of hand to hand combat being waged. "Why is everything sideways?" Then her eyes focused, and she sat up. "Oh. Duh." Then she remembered why she was there. "Oh crap, the needle! I brought a needle with the serum, where the hell is it?" She frantically started searching for it.
The sound of shoe leather smacking off human flesh sounded again. Xiaoyu was getting dizzy from the blows to the head. She stood unsteadily. Devil Asuka measured her and spin-kicked her in the head again. Xiaoyu bent forward from the impact, but her little frame belied her toughness, and she did not go down. Even Devil Asuka was surprised. "I won't lie, Xiaoyu. I thought for sure you would have been done by now." She threw a jumping bicycle kick. It caught her in the jaw, and she hit the ground, laying on her back. The world was racing past her eyes as she got dizzier and dizzier. Asuka kneeled over top of Xiaoyu and punched her in the face. Her head hit the ground, fortunately not concrete or much more damage could have been caused. She elbowed Xiaoyu in the face, breaking her nose and causing a small amount of blood to run from it. Xiaoyu's stomach lurched from the dizziness. She couldn't defend herself, and Devil Asuka was not about to provide any mercy. She continued to bash Xiaoyu in the head and face with elbows. Then a headbutt. Xiaoyu dropped to the ground, cradling her broken right arm, her eyes open and glazed, distant-looking.
Asuka spun suddenly around and caught Julia sneaking up behind her with a spinning backfist. The impact snapped her head back and she dropped the needle containing the reversion serum. Julia grunted, and Devil Asuka fired a kick into her stomach. It doubled her over in pain.
"My, you're a big, strapping, strong looking girl" Devil Asuka said, voice tinged with pleasure. "I wonder who has the stronger stomach, you or Christie? Hmm. I'm definitely game for finding out." Asuka headlocked Julia. Julia flexed her stomach muscles, and when Asuka hit her with the knee, she barely flinched. Asuka raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You were ready for me? Aw. The results are skewed already! Oh well, an unscientific approach it is..." And she continued rifling knees into Julia's stomach. When Asuka couldn't get much of a reaction out of her, she got testy, like a petulant child not getting their way. "You aren't any fun! Alright, flex these muscles!" Asuka kneed Julia again, but in the face this time. The unexpected blow to the jaw caused her legs to go slack momentarily as she was stunned and saw stars. Asuka kneed her in the jaw again. Julia groaned and dropped to her knees again. Now that Julia wasn't tightening her stomach muscles to defend against the knees, Asuka began laying them in again. This time she got the desired forceful exhalations. "That's better! Now you got it." Asuka proceeded to knee Julia's stomach into jello. Finally she dropped Julia on the ground, who rolled into a ball holding her stomach and groaning.
"Oh, you can't possibly think that was all, can you... please. I am not finished with you, you big strong lout."
Asuka picked Julia up to her feet, then facing her, she put one arm around her neck and hooked one of her thick powerful legs at the knee with the other. "You like your suplexes, so here's one of my own... this is called a capture suplex." Asuka arced backward, throwing Julia overhead. Julia landed with a thud hard on the ground, and rolled a little, coming to rest flat on her back. Her mouth was open slightly, and she was breathing hard. Asuka looked down at her. "They hurt, don't they? That's what those feel like. Do I hear an encore?" Asuka picked Julia up by the arm and neck, her devil-enhanced strength allowing her to deadlift Julia effortlessly. She put Julia in a face to face half-nelson style hold, and threw her again with a head and arm suplex. Julia slammed to the ground again.
Xiaoyu tried to blink away the dizziness she felt from the repeated blows to the head. The needle had landed next to her. Shaking her head, she grabbed it and decided she needed to wait for her time to strike, else all could be lost.
Devil Asuka was too busy with Julia to notice Xiaoyu. She picked up a thick tree branch, and swung it into Julia's stomach like she were swinging a hammer trying to ring a bell. Julia gagged and coughed, curling into a tight ball and shaking with pain. Asuka put her arms around Julia's neck and began to choke her. Julia started to gag. Asuka pulled her backwards so that Julia was on top of her, unable to fight back. She tightened her grip, and Julia couldn't even make gagging noises, as she was being choked so hard she couldn't even exhale. As the long seconds ticked by, her inability to breathe began to take its effect. Julia's limbs began to feel heavy, then she had a hard time keeping her eyes open. She felt like suffocating weights were being piled on her.
Devil Asuka was so preoccupied with beating Julia that she failed to notice Xiaoyu sneak up behind her. She quickly stuck the needle in Asuka's neck and pushed down hard on the plunger to expel the contents rapidly. Asuka swung an arm up and brushed her off. Xiaoyu darted away. "You! I guess I haven't taken care of you yet! Why you insolent little rodent... " Asuka flexed her arms and built up a laser charge in her eyes. Xiaoyu could do nothing but watch it happen. Then Asuka froze. The terrible red light in her eyes slowly waned, then extinguished itself. Asuka dropped to her hands and knees. "Unh... wha... what did you do to me?" Devil Asuka stretched an arm out toward Xiaoyu. "You... will suffer.. I will make you suf... fer..." Devil Asuka slumped to the ground unconscious. Her devil transformation undid itself, with assistance from her natural antigen and the serum Julia had shot into her. Xiaoyu had managed to get her right in the jugular vein, which very quickly carried it to her heart, a lucky strike.
Xiaoyu continued to try to shake the fuzziness, which was slowly waning. She checked on Julia. "Are you alright?"
Julia was coughing and gasping for air. When she finally settled down, she nodded. "I'm alright. I'm pretty beat up, but it could be worse. How are you doing?"
Xiaoyu shook her head again. "Ugh.. I keep getting dizzy spells. My.. my head.. I might have a concussion. I keep feeling like I'm going to fall over."
"Are you alright enough to help me get Asuka back to the lab?"
"I think I can do that. Here, let's do it this way." Xiaoyu put one of Asuka's arms over her shoulder. "Here, you get that arm. We'll carry her like this. We have to go slow, I'm... not.." She cleared her head again. "I'm not 100% here. I'm having a bit of a rough time, but I need to help. She is my friend, too, you know."
"Alright, let's go then."
_____
*Chapter 6*
"You found her!" Jin met Julia and Xiaoyu at the lab.
"Yeah, Xiao had a lot of guts and called her out to a fight. The plan was that I was going to sneak up on her and stick her in the neck, but, well... as you can see from the looks of us, it really didn't go that way."
"Well, how did it go? I see you still got her at least."
"Yeah, well considering what it cost us physically, I hope to the Spirits you're grateful. She lasered me through the bushes, she knew I was there. I hit a tree and blacked out momentarily. Xiaoyu got her ass kicked, but she put up a decent fight. Then I tried to stick her, but she punched me and then proceeded to kick my shit in. She was choking me to death when Xiao here managed to jab her in the neck. She almost ate a laser blast for her trouble but it kicked in and knocked her out, undoing the devil transformation. We carried her here."
"Does she still possess the Devil Gene?"
"Yeah, it's just in remission. I suspect she was unable to control it, and she's been in devil form for the last week. I also suspect her strange antigen kept her from being able to manifest completely as the devil, which probably saved my life and Lili's when she hit us with those lasers. It was less of a cutting edge and more of a strike, like being hit with a large blunt object like a hammer. Damned lucky development for us. I don't think we'd be here right now if it weren't for that.
"That and the fact the Devil Gene is in a body it's unaccustomed to, and that is unaccustomed to it. That's probably a factor as well" said Jin.
"Yeah, that could definitely be it. The scientific side of me really wants to find out. The emotional side of me just wants to help Asuka as soon as possible." Julia turned to her assistant scientists. "Brad, can you and Samantha strap Asuka to that table tightly? If what I think is going to happen happens, she's going to need it."
"Jin. How did the Devil Gene leave you?"
"I lost a fight to Kazuya. I was unconscious, I don't know. I'm sorry I can't help with that. I was unconscious. When I woke up, Asuka was unconscious too. I don't know what happened to her."
"I can tell you", said a voice.
"Asuka! You're.. are you... are you human again?" Jin asked, clearly worried.
Asuka smiled. "For now. Oh, Julia... Xiaoyu.. I'm so, so sorry for everything I did to you. I feel just awful. It... it was terrible. Like I was a prisoner in my own mind. I could see what was happening, but it... it wasn't me, I... I couldn't stop her. It was very much a separate entity controlling my body. Is that what it feels like to you, Jin?"
Jin nodded. "It used to, until I gained greater dominance over it. Evidently, my dominance was not great enough. Can you tell me what happened after I was knocked out? How did this whole thing start?"
Asuka looked ashamed. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you. I shouldn't have come along. I... I hid behind a large tree far away so that I wouldn't affect you and Kazuya. He knocked you out and I came to your aid. I tried to wake you, but then this... this red ball of.. something.. came out of your back... I watched it for a while and then... and then... I woke up, and I had these wings and horns, which were smaller than yours, and I... I was doing these awful things... I hurt so many people... Christie.. is she alright? Are you guys... oh, Lili was in there too, but I'm sure she deserved it. Maybe she will be too terrified of me to mess with me anymore. But you guys and Christie, I feel really badly about. You guys are my friends, and I did such terrible things to you..."
"We'll be fine" said Xiaoyu, arm in a sling. "It wasn't you doing those things, it was the devil gene. We understand, and we aren't mad at you, okay? We just want to do whatever we can to help you. If you need to hear the words... you're forgiven."
Asuka smiled sheepishly. "Thanks. I don't really deserve such complete forgiveness, but I always knew I had great friends."
Xiaoyu smiled. "Oh, you might be happy to know that since you... well, devil you.. kicked the tar out of Lili, she's been nothing but a huge kitten, kind and courteous to everyone. It's quite amusing to watch! I want to see what happens when you talk to her... after this is all over of course."
Asuka laughed. "Oh yeah, that sounds like something I need to do!"
Julia spoke up. "I hate to interrupt the feel-good here, but Asuka, we're ready to start the procedure. We're going to try to draw the Devil Gene out of you, alright? You're strapped in to this table because, well, we have no idea how this is going to go. If the Gene manifests itself, we kind of don't want you going on a rampage again. I think we understand it well enough to do this. It might hurt, I just... I don't know what's going to happen."
"Whatever it is, I'm ready for it. I'll actively fight it out of me if I have to, now that I'm me again and I know what it feels like in my head."
"Alright, let's start."
Julia drew a needle, and injected Asuka with it. "This will help prevent the Gene from manifesting too badly. It's more of that reversion serum," said Julia. The needle slid into Asuka's arm and drained.
Asuka sighed and relaxed as the serum went to work.
"Next we need to administer a jolt. A small electrical shock to a non-critical part of the body, like, say, your arm. This will stimulate the Gene, hopefully making it uncomfortable and leaving you." Jula took an ECG paddle and charged it, then applied it to Asuka's arm and activated it on a low-level basis. Asuka's arm jumped a little. Julia turned up the voltage a little and did it again. Again, nothing.
"Hey, maybe we could-" Asuka started. Then her body went tense all over and she clenched her teeth hard. "Nnnnngggh!! Aaahhh!!" She rocked hard against the restraints. Her heart monitor and other vital signs began to accelerate. Her blood pressure rose.
"The Gene is fighting her antigen! It looks like... wait.." Julia flipped to the X-ray scope. "Her antigen has adapted to the Gene and is fighting it. The Devil Gene is trying to kill her and find a new host! Jin, we're going to need to you be alert. If that Gene leaves her, grab it fast. We know you can control it."
Jin nodded and held Asuka's hand, balled into a tight fist. "Asuka, hang on! We'll get you through this."
"The worst part of science is the unpredictability. You just never know what you're going to come up against, or what to do with it. Wait. Jin, didn't you say the Devil Gene left you when you were unconscious?"
"It did."
"Maybe it thought you were dying and jumped to a new host... her. Oh my God, look..."
Asuka's whole body was tense as a bowstring. Random devil mutations were appearing and disappearing at an alarming rate. Horns would grow and disappear. Her eyes changed colour dozens of times. Her devil personality would assert itself and then go into remission. "Guys, what's happening to me?? I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you all! Help me, please! It hurts! You'll all suffer a thousand lifetimes over!" Three short laser blasts fired into the ceiling. "I'll drink your blood! I'll pull your heart out of your chest and eat it while you watch dying!"
Julia needed to refocus. As Asuka was morphing between varying degrees of human and devil, Julia spoke to Jin. "Jin. You said you were unconscious, right?"
"Yes. I don't know what happened."
"Is it possible the Devil Gene thought you were dying and jumped to a new host? And it happened to be her?"
Jin looked thoughtful. "It is certainly plausible."
Julia smiled. "Then all we need to do is make the gene think Asuka is dying... she doesn't actually have to be. Samantha, rig up a double dose of Triclazine, fast." To Jin, she said "It's the strongest muscle relaxer and sedative we have. It's stronger than anything in production right now. The benefits of being on a scientific team." Samantha produced the needle. "Hang on Asuka, we got you..." Julia plunged the needle into her arm and drained it. Nearly immediately, Asuka stopped thrashing and immediately relaxed, her body's muscles all unwinding. Asuka sighed with relaxation and settled back into the table in sleep.
They waited.
And they waited.
Finally, the mutations subsided, and she remained human. Xiaoyu, Julia and Jin had no idea what to do or whether it would work at all. Asuka's vital signs were slow, from the effects of the powerful sedative.
The ball of red plasma slowly worked its way out of her chest. Jin cupped his hands around it, absorbing it back through his arms, up to his shoulders. "It's done. She's free from its grip, but... is it too late?"
Asuka was unconscious on the table. The three of them started undoing the straps. "We don't need these anymore" Julia said. "We'll just need to monitor her for a bit to make sure her vitals are good. That sedative will probably take a good while to wear off. We'll keep here here for a couple days. Samantha, please take her to the monitoring wing. Give her anything she asks for- food, water, a blanket, etc." Samantha nodded and they transferred her to a wheeled bed, and she was soon carted away.
"Well... it's over" Jin said.
Julia nodded. "This part of the journey is, anyway. But she's probably going to be mentally at war with what happened. It's going to be up to you, as her cousin and as someone who knows the Devil Gene inside out, to comfort her and help her through this ordeal. She will have a lot of questions, ones that you can provide the answers to. She will definitely need you. And thank you for your help."
Jin bowed his head and left the lab.
_____
*Chapter 7*
Asuka gathered her friends Julia, Christie and Xiaoyu in her makeshift hospital room. "I can't believe you guys still like me. I absolutely don't deserve your friendship. I seriously injured every one of you. I cannot possibly even begin apologizing enough. I have had a lot of time to think about it these past couple days. I'm so, so very sorry. I just want to cry all the time." Even as she spoke, tears fell from her eyes.
Xiaoyu, ever the kind-hearted one, was unsurprisingly the first to speak. "Asuka, of course we all forgive you. It wasn't really you to begin with. We all know your situation. We all came face to face with you, or the devil you. It just... quite literally was not you. I think I speak for the three of us here when I say that you're of course completely forgiven. No permanent damage was done, we will all recover. My dizzy spells are already subsiding."
"How is your arm?"
"Well, it hurts some, but the cast is at least really cool. It's hot pink! I picked it myself. Hey, would you sign it for me?" Xiaoyu was chipper about the whole thing. It made Asuka laugh.
"I knew there was a reason we were such good friends. You can always make me laugh, even when I don't feel like I have any reason to. But I'm not totally unarmed in the humour department..." she drew a big sappy heart next to her name and wrote "OMG BFF" next to it. Everyone laughed at that.
Turning to Christie, she asked "So? How about you, are you recovered yet?"
"I'm on the road to it, still a lot of bruising. It looks like an oil painting. But hey, I'll survive. Don't worry about me. How are you doing? I mean that whole "becoming a devil" thing could not have been easy..."
"I'm... well, like I said, I want to cry a lot. I remember everything. It was like... watching someone else do all that stuff, using my body to do it. I couldn't do anything to stop it. All I could do was watch in horror."
"Yeah" said Christie. "But none of us are permanently injured, and we all know what was going on, so... don't worry about it. None of us hate you, none of us are mad. Hell, we were all worried for you and your well being. I had a bit of a pill scare I frightened you all with, and yet you were all there to help me through it. Well, I was here for you. So really, don't cry about it. We're all happy you're back." Christie gave Asuka a hug.
"Thanks, guys. You really are the best."
"Well, Asuka, I'm off the clock here but I'm going through your results... everything looks fine. How about we get you out of here?" Julia said.
"That sounds great to me."
Xiaoyu chipped in. "Hey guys! Forget supper back at the compund tonight, I think we all need to celebrate this with a pizza night!"
They all agreed. As they were walking along, they spotted Lili coming towards them. "Hey guys" said Asuka. "Follow my lead. I'm going to see how Lili likes being bullied a little. See how she like it when it's done to her." More loudly, so Lili could hear, she started ahead of them. "Okay guys, I'll see you back at the compound!" She made like she was looking back at the group and not watching as she bumped into Lili. Asuka pretended to get angry. "You again! You didn't learn your lesson the first time?" She pretended to get angry. Lili had seen her devil transformation, being the cause of the catalyst of anger for it. Lili immediately panicked. "A-a-a-Asuka! I-I-I, I uh, uh.. I'm sor-sorry.. I'll be more careful. I'm sorry, please don't get angry! It was my fault... ple-please forgive me.." Lili was almost begging. The trio behind them snickered quietly, out of earshot.
"Why should I?" bellowed Asuka, trying not to laugh herself. "You know what happens when I get angry, right??"
"B-b-but they were hel-helping you for that!" Lili was shaking.
"Well I have some bad news... they weren't able to help me, so... I'm stuck with the Devil Gene. They... oh God, no.. please, no, not again! I can't take this again! NOOO!"
Lili's eyes went wide with fear. She was stuttering and tripping over words. "I'm so sorry, please.. please don't hurt me!"
Asuka started to laugh, having to put her hands on her knees. The group behind them followed suit. "Hooo man! Boy, your face! I've never seen such a look of fear! Well, I mean I did once, before I nearly decapitated you with that laser, but damn. I got you good." She slapped Lili on the arm, letting her know she had been had. "Oh man. The look on your face! Money can't buy some of the best things in life!" Asuka rejoined her friends, who all had a great laugh. Lili turned beet red in frustration and embarrassment and stormed off muttering curses.
"Asuka, I didn't know you had it in you to be like that!" Xiaoyu exclaimed, laughing.
"Well, you know me, I AM a little devil..."
THE END
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