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A/N: Ya know what?  I’m tired of referring to Dr. Clarks as . . . well . . . Dr. Clarks.  His name is Stephen, dammit, and that is how he shall be known!  I’ll still refer to him as ‘Dr. Clarks’ in some instances so that people don’t get confused.  That being said, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.

Adam’s Bliss
Chapter Three
Creeping Tumors: Deftera

"Man crawls on the earth like vermin, breeding and fighting for eternity.”

Derek looked over at the second cot, his body growing stiff with rage as the silver light poured onto the figure.  Amy Chase lay in a fitful slumber on the bed, her skin pale and cheeks stained purple from a lack of oxygen.  “She’s just a little girl.” he hissed through his teeth.

“Yet you dare judge them . . . You who lost the will to die properly.”

“What's that even supposed to mean!?” he yelled.  He forced himself to swallow the rage that burned his throat, letting out his frustration in a quick breath.  Shouting would get him no where.  At the very least, it could wait until his patient was saved.

Derek slipped on a clean mask and pair of gloves.  He quickly smeared a trail of gel on Amy’s stomach, following it with the scalpel.  Horridly colored tumors dotted the organ.  He incinerated them with the laser, the Deftera drawn from hiding as he burned the final one away.  He watched the twirling drops of red and blue swim through the stomach.  Had they not been so deadly, their dance would have almost been beautiful.

Their small ballet did nothing to soften Derek’s heart.  He stood with the suction tool at the ready, watching them thrash into one another.  He quickly drained at the pulsating indigo splotch.  The color of their violent meeting faded slightly as he drained before they broke apart, swimming away to recover.

So, what are these guys going to do? Derek thought.  Are they going to attack like Kyriaki, or will it be more of the same?

The dulled botches continued swimming, giving him a chance to raise the vitals as a precaution.  He finished with the syringe just in time.  They attacked one another again, leaving him free to drain at them once more.  Still locked in combat, their bodies had turned a contrasting set of peppered grey.  They began throbbing erratically and Derek reached for his scalpel.  Pale yellow and violet dots appeared on the stomach, rapidly bringing down Amy’s vitals.  He quickly sliced them out, pinching them with his forceps and dropping them in the waste tray.

“That was it?” he mumbled as he placed a carbon patch over the wound.

He sealed the patch and treated the tumors before suturing the stomach.  “I’ll have to be careful.  I have a feeling things are going to be much more difficult in the lungs.”  He disinfected and bandaged the incision, taking a moment to stabilize her before moving to the chest.

After cleaning his tools, he opened her chest and saw two pairs of red and blue Deftera.  More tumors were left behind in their paths and he burned them away.  The blue pair whirled together, creating another batch of tumors that cut the girl’s vitals.  He burned them as he spread a line of gel on the lung.  Both sets of Deftera repelled from it, only to bump into another line he smeared.  He boxed them in, attempting to steer the red and blue into each other, but one of the blues had managed to squirm away.  With its partner trapped, the blue Deftera zipped quickly around the lung.

Derek paid it no mind as he retraced the fading lines of gel, slowly drawing the circle closer to leave the blue at the mercy of one of the reds.  Just as it appeared as though one of the reds would strike, the fleeing blue returned.  Both it and its partner bumped into the line where Derek’s fingers currently were, coating his hand in an icy breath and forcing his eyes to close under the frigid bite.

-----

The sound of a sharp ding startled him.

Derek opened his eyes just in time to see the elevator doors part for him.  He saw his faint reflection in the large window across from him, a soft emerald flow from the shiny floor bouncing off of it.  “Caduceus.” he murmured.

He stepped into the large hall, the same eerie quiet greeting him.  Night had since fallen upon Angeles Bay as indicated by the dark sky.  A silver half moon hung over the horizon, its subtle glow put to shame by the fluorescent lights above him.  Caduceus was hardly a place that knew silence regardless of the hour.  Derek groaned, having a sinking feeling of what awaited him given his previous situation.  A meeting with a personified parasite was something he did not want to experience again, but from the look of things, he did not have much of a choice.

“Better get this over with . . .” he sighed, setting off hopeful that he would be ready for whatever he came across.

After twenty minutes of searching, Derek decided that he was really getting tired of the sound of his foot steps.  That, and the sound of his aggravated sigh.  Being the only things he had heard in that time, he was taken by surprise to hear breathing from beyond a curve in the hallway.

He slowly moved towards the wall, quieting his own breath as he stuck to the shadows.  The hushed whispers continued accompanied by soft clicks against the floor.  Two of them it sounds like . . . could this be it?

Derek pressed himself to the wall as he crept towards the noise.  A soft blue light poured onto the opposite wall, bobbing with the sound of movement.  He arched his brow as he continued, pushing his back against a pillar and slowly peaking out from behind it.  He blinked slightly in response to the light, fluttering his eyes as they adjusted.  His eyes focused quickly, cause his mouth to drop slightly.

“That’s Deftera?”

Derek quickly ducked back behind the pillar, slapping his hands over his mouth and cursing himself mentally.  The whispers stopped and soft footsteps padded towards him.  He pressed himself into the wall as best he could, holding his breath while the blue light spilled over the floor.  The footsteps drew closer, stopping to pivot back in the opposite direction.  An intelligible voice sang out, receiving a lower pitch in response.  Another set of footsteps moved away.

Derek slowly drew his fingers from his mouth, relaxing slightly until he heard the steps pivot again.  He tensed as the glow touched him and sent a chill through his body.  The sharp icy shade of the figure stung eyes again when it stepped before him.  He winced, taking a closer look at it when it no longer hurt to do so.

A pearl white cloak lined with sapphire trims draped her thin frame.  Cobalt hair ran just past her shoulders and her body was much closer to that of a human’s than Kyriaki, the only difference in her unnatural colors and inexplicable glow.

Derek stiffened as she turned and met her deep blue eyes.  Her aura ate away at the shadows, ensuring that he had no means of hiding from her.  She looked at him, surprising him with a soft smile.  The blue shade of her cheeks deepened as she turned away, bashfully watching him from the corner of her eyes.

Still pressed firmly against the wall, his eye brows lifted by the look she gave him, but he grew rigid as she approached.  He threw his glance around and found nothing in the barren hallways to protect himself with.  He rummaged through the medical pack on his hip, his search interrupted as her cool fingers came to rest on his shoulders.

He barely took in the pure stare of her eyes when his lips were engulfed by hers.

Not again . . .

The less than desirable images of his time with Kyriaki flashed in his mind, almost distracting him from the sweet mist she breathed in his mouth.  He stopped as it caressed his tongue for a moment, but the image of Kyriaki’s deformed face quickly deluded it.

He grabbed a random tool from his med back and struck.  A soft buzz broke the silence, followed by a tiny squeak from the blue girl.

She pulled back, her eyes wide and confused as she looked between him and her elbow – where he burned her with his laser.

Derek brandished the tool, raising it as he snarled.  “You’re not fooling me.”  He pressed a small button on the laser.  Another short zap sounded from it, causing her to jump back a few steps.  She blinked helplessly at him, her eyes shining as they pooled with tears.  “Drop the act.” he growled.  He pressed forward in spite of her hurtful look.

“I don’t care how you look.  I know what you are.”

Rushed footsteps boomed down the hall.  He saw the woman’s eyes widen before he turned, feeling his eyes grow as well.

“Ah crap . . .”

Another figure haloed by the blue aura appeared, this time a man.  The shades of his clothes and skin matched those of his female companion, though the sleeves were absent from his shirt to reveal a pair of powerful arms.  His hair was tied back, doing nothing to hide his snarl.  He pulled his arm back and drew a beam on the surgeon.  Derek, on the other hand, had his gaze locked with the fist which began to glow.

“Urk . . .”

Derek rushed past the woman as he heard something blast behind him.  A cold jet brushed his shoulder and sprayed an icy blast against the wall.  He paled and tightened his sprint, barely dodging another blast he felt rush for him.  The large window pane shattered as he ran by it, sprinkling shards of cold glass down on him.  He stiffened as a particularly large piece spiraled by his ear.  Seeking shelter from the jagged rain, he ran through a stairwell entrance and flew up the steps, not slowing until several fights were put behind him and his legs nearly gave out under him.

He propped himself against the wall and struggled to catch his breath.  “Great . . . ice wizards . . .” he groaned and slid down.  “As if a perverted, samurai monster wasn’t enough.”  Having slid to his back, Derek allowed his body to sprawl on the floor as he stared at the ceiling with exhausted contempt.  One ice flinging mage was more than he felt he could chew.  Two was, in his opinion, beyond cruel.  Then, Derek’s stomach twisted, recalling that he had another pair of Deftera to think about.

If the blue Deftera were ice elements, he had a sinking feeling he knew what the red Deftera would be.  He took in another labored breath from his run, not caring how immature he sounded as he allowed himself to whine.

“Why me?”

-----

Derek slowly crept down the halls with a fire extinguisher lowered at his side.  Perhaps not the best weapon against two fire wielding personified viruses but he had not much choice but to take what he was given.  There were doubts of course.  His assumption that the red Deftera pair would be fire elementals could be wrong, and he did not have a clue how to go up against the blue set.  For now, his focus was on scoping out his situation and trying not to get killed.

His musings were broken by a rapidly twitching glow from down the hall.  A small brush of warmth touched his skin coupled with the orange red tint of the light.  The grip on the extinguisher tightened as he quietly slipped into an open room.  He ducked behind the door and peered through the crack, hearing a pair of footsteps draw near.  A ruby glow preceded the solid red figure it haloed.  The red Deftera, clearly female, stepped into his field of vision.  Her deep orange hair was spiked just to the nape of her neck, swaying slightly as she looked about.  Clothes of the same color tightly hugged her frame, much less humble than those of the blue Deftera girl, covering little more than the essentials.

Another figure was with her, a male with spiked hair and clothes matching his companion.  Fortunately, the apparel below his belt was a bit more modest, going down to his ankles where it was cut off by a pair of charcoal boots.  His hand formed on the girl’s fleshy hip and the two turned towards one another, breaking into a passionate kiss.  Their make out session grew, oblivious to Derek’s inward cringes.

“They’re so . . . horny . . .” he grumbled quietly.

He looked nervously at the extinguisher.  “Well, here goes something.”

He moved slowly towards the opening, watching as they stood completely distracted.  He burst through the door and sent a spray of foam at them.  A gnarled, electric screech came from them both and they brought their arms up to guard them.  His upper hand was short lived and the foam stream sputtered as it ran low.

In a panicked motion, Derek whipped the extinguisher by the hose and blindly brought it down towards the two.  His attack was brought to a halt as the canister was caught firmly in a red hand.  Derek froze up in spite of the fiery eyes that glared him down.  He had only a second to lock up when the male Deftera yanked the extinguisher and the hand that still tightly gripped the hose.  Derek pitched forward, a searing pain engulfing in the right side of his stomach before he thought to let go.

He stumbled back, tenderly clutching where the blazing punch had struck him.  He was quick to regret that.  His fingers twitched away from the wound as he hissed.  That was about all the time he was allotted to suffer.  As he stumbled back, a bright glow of orange drew his gaze towards the angry pair.  The male Deftera’s fist was engulfed in a small flame.

Derek scrambled on his feet and turned to run the other way.  He had only gotten a few steps when he pitched forward and screamed in pain.

His right shoulder burned and the combined searing from that of his gut brought him down.  He collapsed to the floor, the cool linoleum providing some feeble relief to his charred flesh.  That did not last long.  As Derek propped himself up ever so slightly, he saw a bright red figure appear in the polished floor, just behind his own reflection.  His eyes widened as he saw Deftera’s fist reared back, ready to land with another blazing punch.  He rolled away, narrowly avoiding the hit.

The punch cracked the floor, causing the tiles and concrete to crumble underneath them.  The red male crashed through but Derek was able to grasp an edge of the jagged hole.  Pain biting his tensed muscles, he grunted through it and struggled to pull himself up.  He managed to prop his elbows onto the floor when a hand closed around his collar.

The lady red Deftera pulled him up, choking him as she dragged him to a room and threw him against the wall.  She pushed into his injured shoulder, silencing his broken hisses as she engulfed his mouth.  He squirmed under her spicy kiss, trying not to let the taste fog his mind.  He reached for his med pack only to have his hand grabbed.

“Guh!” the pained gasp pushed through his teeth as he was slammed to the floor.

She straddled him, blocking his reach to the med pack.  She gently traced his mouth with her finger, forcing him to look into her churning eyes.  A swirl of red and yellow danced within, projecting an unsavory amount lust and passion.  She pressed her lips to his again as her hot nails slipped under his scrubs, clawing him playfully.  Though gentle, the nails left burns in their path and his struggles only aggravated his wounds.

The electric hum from before sounded from the hall, more beautiful in its sound thought it was clearly irate.  The lady red pulled away from him, smiling and pressing a warm finger to his lips.  She slowly got up from him and went to the hall.

Derek tried to get up, but the burns proved too much.  His breath was uneven and labored in response to the pain, leaving him unable to take in enough to retain consciousness.  He somewhat welcomed the darkness, as it dulled the agony from his mind.

-----

Sidney gripped the “report” the British Navy had handed over to him.

Eidoth International was a front for Delphi’s research, shocking perhaps, but nothing they did not know already.  They were hiding something.  Whatever it was, they had no right to do so, not when two of his best employees had suffered because of it.

He reached for the phone, mentally swearing to himself that there would be hell to pay if he did not get answers.

“Chief!”

He looked up to see Tyler standing at his office door.  “What’s going on, Dr. Chase?”

“It’s Derek!  His vitals are dropping like a rock!”

He stood up quickly, tipping his office chair from his abrupt and rigid move.  “What happened, Chase?”

“We’re not sure.” He followed Sidney’s swift walk to the recovery ward, doubling his own steps to keep up.  “One minute he was stable and the next, his blood pressure started going down.”

“Who’s seeing to him?”

“Dr. Clarks.  He’s trying to stabilize him and figure out what caused it.”

A frantic buzz from the monitors sounded down the hall.  The air pulsated around them as they drew near, all but slamming them head on when they entered the room.  Dr. Clarks and Leslie were at Derek’s bedside, the surgeon himself just as still as ever, though his already weakened breath seemed to grow shallower by the second.  “Hang the IV drip, Leslie.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

She quickly did as Stephen commanded while he injected a shot of adrenaline into Derek’s other hand.  His vitals rose slightly, only to drop just as quickly, hitting zero as his heart stopped completely.

“Leslie, power the defibrillator!”

Stephen immediately began chest compressions while the defibrillator charged.  Tyler gritted his teeth, his eyes large as he watched his best friend flat line.  Sidney’s hands merely clenched at his sides, his expression stoic.

“Clear!”

Leslie moved in with the paddles once Stephen stepped away.  Derek’s body twitched from the shock, as did the electrocardiograph, which began beeping rhythmically.  A collective sigh was heard as his pulse returned, his breathing becoming steadier as well.  “Dr. Clarks, his vitals . . .”

He looked up at Leslie eyeing the monitors strangely.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing . . . they’re rising . . .”

True enough, Derek’s vitals were slowly climbing out of the danger zone, his over all readings stabilizing as well.  “Glad that’s over with.” Tyler breathed.

“Don’t relax just yet, Dr. Chase.” Sidney said.  “He could crash again at any time.  Keep monitoring him and let me know if this happens again.”

“Hey Chief.”

All eyes turned towards the voice, seeing Victor stand in the door way, his arms crossed into his usual pose.

“I just finished analyzing Stiles’ blood sample.  You’re gonna want to see this.”

-----

Having been burned and violated by a pair of fire elementals, Derek was not expecting to be shivering when he woke up.  Yet, the first thing he noticed was the chattering of his teeth.  As something cold was pressed against his chest, he could have assumed it was a bag of ice was it not surprisingly soft.  He opened his eyes and found a different ceiling brushed by a blue glow above him.  Blue . . .?  Blue!  Deftera!

No sooner had his eyes starting scanning the room did he find them locked with a pair of cerulean.  The female blue Deftera was beside him, but she simply smiled as she continued pressing against his stomach.  “Wh-what are you doing?” he stuttered, confused and freezing.  He moved to push himself up, but she placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.

It was only after she pressed into his shoulder that Derek noticed the significant reduction of pain he was in.  Lifting his head slightly, he saw his scrubs had been unbuttoned, leaving his torso exposed and burn clearly visible.  He watched as the wound slowly receded and left healed skin behind.  A soothing coolness rippled from where her hand was pressed, taking his pain away.

He blinked when not a trace of the burn was left on his abdomen, his shoulder following suit.

“Why?  Why did you heal me?” he looked up at her with a severe expression.  “What are you trying to pull?”

Her face remained calm as she slowly traced his cheek.  He visibly shuddered at her icy touch and his exposed chest.  Her look turned sympathetic as she reached for a bundled blanket at the foot of the cot, smiling warmly as she wrapped it around him.

Derek was too befuddled to protest, and the warm blanket was nice, but he found himself back away as she moved in for another kiss.  He placed a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back as she sat up.  He reached for his med pack but felt only his bare hip.

“Where’s my headset?” he murmured and looked down.  His gaze was brought back up as he watched her move away.  She turned towards a chair, where his headset was propped.  Derek closed his scrubs and took it as she handed it to him, buckling the belt around his waist and draping the headset around his neck once again.  He looked back up at her as she continued to smile at him.

“Um . . .so . .?”  He looked her over, noticing her disarmed pose.  “You got a name?”

A short giggle escaped her, causing her hair to bounce slightly.  A soft chime came from her, both inhuman and serene in its sound.

“Crystal . . .” he murmured, the sparkling stone forming in his mind at the sound.  His eyes instantly grew large.

Dammit!  Don’t go around naming it!  It’s a tumor causing murderer!

He looked up at her.  No matter how beautiful she looks . . . it’s just a disease . . .

Crystal moved towards him and Derek grabbed the hands that moved to frame his face.  “Hey.  None of that.”

A loud crash from the door startled them both.  They looked towards the entrance as a potent blue shine thrust within.  The male blue Deftera’s had already worn a tense expression upon bursting into the room.  It loosened up as his eyes flickered between Derek, Crystal and their held hands.  The tension returned to his face with a vengeance, angrier than before.

“Uh oh!”

Derek leapt off the cot just as it broke under an icy blast.  The Deftera cleared the distance between the door and Crystal in a single jump, the floor quacking slightly upon his landing.  He stood protectively before her, a blizzard swirling in his eyes.  The aura around him grew and brightened, casting tiny ice shards within the swirling winds.

Derek rushed for the door, heart pounding as he slammed it behind him.  He only managed to take a single step before he found himself propelled down the hall, the door, frame and pieces of the wall joining him as they were blown off.  He crumpled amongst the pile of broken wood, groaning slightly at his rough spill.  A pair of rushed footsteps drew his attention forward, allowing him to also see a flicker of red light move in time with the sounds.  “Red Deftera . . .” he growled, looking back as he heard the blue versions closing in from behind.  “This could get ugly.”

A patch of shadows behind a garbage can and sink caught his eye.  Not the best places for hiding, but was something.  He rushed and ducked behind it as best he could just as the two auras spilled a light purple on the floor.  The red and blue pairs stopped and locked eyes, their expressions unreadable.  Derek shrunk back even farther, closing his eyes and bracing himself for the oncoming fight.  He hoped they would finish each other off or the battle would move before things got too intense.

Having anticipated angry shouts or elemental blasts, he was surprised to hear the silence broken by a several retreating footsteps.

Huh?

Derek opened his eyes and watched as the blue Deftera pair walked away.  The red pair had evidently done the same, based on the retreating red glow and footsteps.  The surgeon had succumb to a perplexed induced quiet as the echoing clicks against the floor grew soft, a thin blanket of fluorescent white shining the hall in the colored lights’ wake.

Long after both sets had disappeared and left him in silence, Derek had still not emerged from his hiding spot.  He stared blankly at a wall across from him with chin resting in the palm of his hand and his mind churning.  “Why didn’t they fight?” he murmured.  “Red and blue Deftera are usually really aggressive towards each other.”  His soft sigh echoed in the small confines of his hiding places.  He knit his brows, drumming his fingers on his cheek.

Maybe . . . they didn’t have a reason to fight . . .

That simple musing flicked a switch.  Derek shot up slightly as his mind traced over various images of the Deftera.

The blue pair holding hands when he first spotted them . . .

The red pair aggressively making out . . .

The fondness the females of both pairs seemed to have for him . . .

And the jealous rage of the blue male when he found him holding his companion’s hands.

“But that doesn’t mean I can’t give them a reason to!”

-----

Though Derek’s search of the building started out rigorous, his nerves were starting to get the better of him.  To say that his plan was risky would be putting it mildly.  Regretfully, the threat of failure was not the only thing making him nervous.

He suppressed his shaking as he crept down the hall, forcing it to still as best he could when he spotted a flicker of red light down the hall.  He took a deep breath.  “Okay, here we go.”

He pressed himself to the wall and stuck to the fading shadows.  He carefully made his way to the end of the hall, where it forked off in two opposite directions.  The red pair was not far down the left turn of the hall.  Derek was able to watch them from a reflection in a window where the hall ended.  While it was not surprising that they were making out once again, he could not help but shudder at it.

Ugh . . . gotta get him away from her.

His search for a diversion was cut short when he noticed the Research and Development lab just across from him.  He quietly made his way over to the door, smiling as he saw the arsenal of lab equipment at his disposal.  His smile dropped when he spotted something on the far side of the room.  “What the crap?” he mumbled, making his way towards it.  He blinked slightly as he reached it before his eyes narrowed in annoyance.  “They get an espresso machine?”  He snorted and smacked the side of the machine with his hand.  “We can’t even have a Mr. Coffee in the break room, and they get an espresso machine!”

He sighed and began looking around again.  “Well, at least I don’t have to feel guilty about breaking Victor’s lab equipment now.”  He ran his fingers along the counter, drumming them slightly as he scanned the shelves.  He stopped at a workstation and slid a long glass beaker from the stand.  “This should do nicely.”

The red Deftera pair was still at it when he emerged from the lab, beaker in hand.  Pressing his back against the wall again, he slipped towards the edge of it and observed them in the window, trying not to feel like a voyeur in the process.  Their eyes were closed as they deepened their kiss, pivoting slightly in one another’s arms.  As the male’s back slowly turned towards him, Derek stepped from the corner of the wall and hurled the beaker over their heads.  He stepped back immediately, catching a short glimpse of it spiraling in the window before it faded into darkness.  A tiny shatter of glass perked the Deftera from their embrace and drew their gaze towards the end of the hall.

Okay, good.  Now I . . .

Derek’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash.  With large eyes, he listened as additional glass shards and metal crashed against the floor, causing a loud rumble to shake the walls.  His eyes were still wide as the sound faded and the reflection in the window had shown the two rushing towards the corridor’s end.

Uh . . . ooops.

He recovered from his blunder, seeing the pair reach the end of another forked passage and split up.  “Well, it worked.” he murmured.  He followed on fast but light footsteps, pausing slightly to survey the damage.  A wall clock lay among the shards of its glass face and the beaker, entangled in the wires of another machine which he could only assume had caused a domino effect.  Shrugging the incident off, he glanced down each hall just in time to see the male Deftera enter a room.

Derek moved down the opposite hall, sticking behind the remaining clutter for coverage.  He slowed as he closed in on a red aura.  The female red had her hands on her exposed hips, throwing her head back and forth.

Ugh . . . I do not want to do this . .

He took a breath and pushed himself through the urge to recoil.  He stiffly tapped her on the shoulder, pressing his lips to hers the moment she turned.  She became rigid under his forward move as did Derek, thinking for a moment that he had made a grave mistake.  Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck after a few strained seconds.  Though relieved about not having his various body parts being charred and ripped apart, Derek had to suppress a cringe as she lapped the inside of his mouth.

He stroked her warm hair and pulled from her embrace as slowly as possible.  Throwing on a suggestive smirk, he squeezed her hand and jogged down the hall, motioning her to follow him in a playful round of tag.  She grinned hungrily as well, tossing her hair back as she ran after him.

As he led her on the cat and mouse chase, Derek could not help but get a sick feeling in his stomach.  For all his academic skills, Tyler had been quite the tease with the female student body during their college days.  While Derek did admire his friend, if there was one trait he did not want to copy, it was this.  If he ever finds out bout this somehow, he’ll never let me live it down.

The chase lasted several minutes, Derek allowing himself to get caught a few times to keep her interested.  He began getting nervous as the time passed, fearing that mild groping and tongue kisses would soon not be enough to sate her lust.  It seemed to be getting to that point.  He allowed her to catch him again, finding his body pressed against the wall as her inner thigh rubbed against his Southern regions.  His involuntary grumble was swallowed as she all but shoved her tongue down his throat.  Sweat began to collect on his brow.

A blue light caught his eye.  He moved his glance toward it as best he could, feeling his heart jolt in relief as he noticed it silhouetted by a single, female figure.

Oh thank God . .

He pushed back into the red Deftera’s kiss.  Slowly running his hands down her waist, he fingered the band of the shorts that barely covered her hips and legs.  He felt her body quiver in excitement and caught her hands just as the moved to undo his belt.  He looked into her eyes, pressing a finger over his forced smirk before motioning for her to follow him once again.  He broke into an abrupt sprint and her compliant footsteps followed after him.

Turning the corner where the blue aura had disappeared, he took a quick glance over his shoulder.

No good, she’s following too close.  I was hoping to save this for an emergency, but . . .

Derek turned his eyes forward and narrowed them, drawing the star shape in his mind.  With his surroundings grey and sluggish, he was easily able to put the necessary distance between himself and the lady red.  Another turn of a corner revealed Crystal, her back turned towards him and thankfully alone.

Why is she alone anyway?

The small musing found its way into his mind as he caught glimpse of the side of her face.  A somber mask coated it as her eyes carelessly scanned the wall.

Maybe her boyfriend’s mad at her . . . although . . .

In the midst of his Healing Touch, the short flashes that played in his mind retained a colorless state, reminiscent of an old film reel.  He saw her eyes widen in fear upon their first meeting, just before he turned to see her male companion attack.  He saw that again after she had healed him, when he barged in on the both of them in the recovery room.  In that frantic moment, Derek was too preoccupied with getting out alive to notice what his subconscious mind had picked up.  Crystal had placed a hand on the blue male’s shoulder, her eyes scared and pleading for the surgeon to be spared.

Wait!  What the hell am I doing?  Derek reprimanded himself, ripping the mental film reel in two.  I’m not starting to feel sorry for it, am I?  It’s not human!  It’s a disease!  A deadly disease!  He let out a short breath.  It has to be destroyed!

Derek squeezed his eyes shut, releasing the Healing Touch and reopening them to a world of color.  He reached out for her hand, gently tugging on it as she jumped in surprise.  Her startled expression turned to a warm, shy smile upon being turned around to face him.  He returned the smile, cradling her cheek as he leaned in for a gentle kiss.  Crystal relaxed in his hold and timidly returned it.  As he invited her minty tongue into his mouth, and she shyly obliged the request, Derek decided he liked kissing Crystal more than the red Deftera female.

But she’s just a disease!  He reminded himself, his heart skipping as her cool hands moved to caress his face.  Just a disease . .

A squeak sounded against the floor behind them.

They broke off their kiss with a gasp, turning to see a shuddering crimson figure.  The female red’s eyes widened as they frantically darted between Derek and Crystal.  Her lips trembled from the betrayal, becoming still as they were pulled back into a snarl.  A tiny gasp escaped Crystal as the fiery eyes were locked with hers.  She launched forward, roughly pushing Derek to the floor as her flame engulfed fist slammed into Crystal’s stomach.

A high pitched cry emitted from her as she stumbled back several paces.  Pain and fear contorted her face for only a split second.  As her cerulean eyes took in the attacker, they narrowed and squeezed out an aqua glow.  Throwing her hands forward, Crystal let out a blizzard of ice at the charging Deftera.  The red screeched and covered her face from the attack.  Flames erupted from her wrists as she swatted at the icy shards, leaving the two in a power struggle.

Derek watched as the evenly matched Deftera girls pressed on with their attacks.  “Well, that takes care of them.” he whispered, gradually slipping away unnoticed and backing behind a corner.  “Now, how to deal with the . . .” he stopped as he turned, finding himself faced with a potent red light.  The raised, blazing fist instantly grabbed his attention.  “Crap!”

He barely dodged the punch, leading the male red back to the struggle between the ladies.  Derek braced himself as he felt a fury swipe charge behind him.  He prepared to evade it, but was surprised when the male charged passed him completely.  What the . . ?

The arched brow he had quickly rose in shock as he watched the male dive in, slamming a fiery blast directly into Crystal’s chest, sending her flying.  “Hey!” Derek yelled, his shout ignored by the red Deftera that perused their airborne adversary.  Disease or not, ganging up on someone like that was cheap.

He followed them into an OR, seeing Crystal struggle to her feet as the other pair prepared to double team her again.  Growling, Derek rushed to a sink and turned the water pressure up as far as it would go.  The arrogant smirks of the red pair were quickly torn from their faces as a spray of cold water sizzled against their flesh.  “Not that I expected you bastards to fight fair, but we’re playing under my rules now.”  Derek gritted his teeth as he moved in with the sink hose.

As the red Deftera flailed under the water jet, Derek turned his gaze to Crystal, who had risen to her feet.  “Hey, let ‘em have it!” he yelled to her.  She looked over to him, giving him a smile and nod before turning her attention to her enemies.  Though her battered body stumbled a bit as she powered another ice blast, it drew a cry of pain from the two upon its launch.

The perturbed red couple did not tolerate their assault for long.  An angry duet preceded a fiery blast, cutting through the steam that enveloped them and throwing their opponents back.  The streams of water and ice protected Derek and Crystal from a full barrage of the fire, but the resulting steam was painful all the same.  Derek pushed himself up, the water hose whipping around wildly from the pressure.  He was instantly downed again as it smacked him across the face and sent his glasses flying.

Ignoring the surgeon, the red Deftera couple moved in on Crystal, grinning as they watched her slowly try to sit up.  She had just pushed herself to her elbows when the red female’s flame drenched hand caught her frightened eye.  She gasped, squirming back as the fire blast charged.  The blood thirsty glint in her eyes was short lived, as a blue light directly struck the red Deftera.  Her lithe frame crashed against the opposite wall, leaving the remaining three to turn to where the hit had come from.

The blue male stood in the doorway, his eyes still raging a blizzard white.  Derek had just recovered his glasses and watched the stare down between the two men.  Growing uneasy, he saw the girls do the same, their fists starting to glow with their respected colors.  “Oh no.”

He had just managed to scramble behind an over turned cot when all hell broke loose.  Curling and covering his head, he braced himself as the savage battle raged on.  A flinch overcame him with every pained yell or deadly hit that sounded.  Narrow misses caused him to withdraw even further and murmur whispered hopes that his shield would remain intact.  He dared not try to run from the room.  Time drew out forever as the violent scuffle crashed about the walls.

It ended with frightening abruptness, just as it had begun.

The harrowing screams died to silence.  All movement ceased.  Derek slowly lifted his head.  The bright colored lights that had engulfed the room settled to a tiny murmur of blue.  “Blue?” he whispered, seeing the soft glow illuminate the otherwise pitch black room.

Then he heard it.

A pained gasp rustled the quiet.  Feeble scrapes pawed at hard floor, coupled by mild sobbing.  Derek stood and looked over the cot, shock splitting his face.  “My God . . .”

Crystal lay mangled amid the bodies of her partner and the red Deftera.  The forms of the deceased had grown completely black, looking as burned out embers or hollow stones.  Crystal, on the other hand, retained her serene glow, though the range on her aura diminished and had given her a ghostly presence.  Another pained cry came from her as she locked eyes with Derek.  Her gnarled hand trembled, trying to reach out for him, only to fall limply to the floor.

Derek walked towards her, kneeling beside her and noticing a large tear in her side.  He hissed at it, noticing thick sparkling liquid ooze from it.  Her blood, he assumed.  A shaking breath fluttered from her lips as her entire frame trembled.  He looked into the rippling pool of her eyes as tears flooded over her cheeks.  Derek sighed, unsure of what to do with himself.

She was a disease.  Just a horrible, murderous, disease . . .

Still, he gently grasped her hand, squeezing it and placing his other hand on her forehead.  “Shhh.” he whispered, flicking a tuft of her bangs from her salt soaked brow.  Her quivering mouth formed a smile as she closed her eyes, her breath slowing to shallow but even gasps.  Crystal’s blue aura faded with each exhale, draping the two of them in unrelenting darkness until finally, it was gone.

-----

With a fluttered blink, Derek found himself back in the chamber.  He instantly looked down at his patient, relieved to find Amy’s lung completely healed and free of tumors.  Her vitals were at a healthy 85 and a quick check of the chiral reaction revealed it to be negative.  “Good.” he sighed, suturing up the incision.  A swift disinfecting coat of gel and bandage later, Amy was well on the path to recovery.  The only thing now was for her to sleep and let her body take it from there.

“She’s safe . . .” he murmured, drawing the sheet up to her chin.  He let out an easy sigh as the color slowly seeped back into her face.  “Poor girl, she’s too young to have to go through this twice.”  He carefully brushed a few rouge bangs from her eye lashes, his smile dipping as unease churned inside of him.

“She’s safe . . . . so why do I feel so terrible?”

Description
A/N: Ya know what?  I’m tired of referring to Dr. Clarks as . . . well . . . Dr. Clarks.  His name is Stephen, dammit, and that is how he shall be known!  I’ll still refer to him as ‘Dr. Clarks’ in some instances so that people don’t get confused.  That being said, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.

Adam’s Bliss
Chapter Three
Creeping Tumors: Deftera

"Man crawls on the earth like vermin, breeding and fighting for eternity.”

Derek looked over at the second cot, his body growing stiff with rage as the silver light poured onto the figure.  Amy Chase lay in a fitful slumber on the bed, her skin pale and cheeks stained purple from a lack of oxygen.  “She’s just a little girl.” he hissed through his teeth.

“Yet you dare judge them . . . You who lost the will to die properly.”

“What's that even supposed to mean!?” he yelled.  He forced himself to swallow the rage that burned his throat, letting out his frustration in a quick breath.  Shouting would get him no where.  At the very least, it could wait until his patient was saved.

Derek slipped on a clean mask and pair of gloves.  He quickly smeared a trail of gel on Amy’s stomach, following it with the scalpel.  Horridly colored tumors dotted the organ.  He incinerated them with the laser, the Deftera drawn from hiding as he burned the final one away.  He watched the twirling drops of red and blue swim through the stomach.  Had they not been so deadly, their dance would have almost been beautiful.

Their small ballet did nothing to soften Derek’s heart.  He stood with the suction tool at the ready, watching them thrash into one another.  He quickly drained at the pulsating indigo splotch.  The color of their violent meeting faded slightly as he drained before they broke apart, swimming away to recover.

So, what are these guys going to do? Derek thought.  Are they going to attack like Kyriaki, or will it be more of the same?

The dulled botches continued swimming, giving him a chance to raise the vitals as a precaution.  He finished with the syringe just in time.  They attacked one another again, leaving him free to drain at them once more.  Still locked in combat, their bodies had turned a contrasting set of peppered grey.  They began throbbing erratically and Derek reached for his scalpel.  Pale yellow and violet dots appeared on the stomach, rapidly bringing down Amy’s vitals.  He quickly sliced them out, pinching them with his forceps and dropping them in the waste tray.

“That was it?” he mumbled as he placed a carbon patch over the wound.

He sealed the patch and treated the tumors before suturing the stomach.  “I’ll have to be careful.  I have a feeling things are going to be much more difficult in the lungs.”  He disinfected and bandaged the incision, taking a moment to stabilize her before moving to the chest.

After cleaning his tools, he opened her chest and saw two pairs of red and blue Deftera.  More tumors were left behind in their paths and he burned them away.  The blue pair whirled together, creating another batch of tumors that cut the girl’s vitals.  He burned them as he spread a line of gel on the lung.  Both sets of Deftera repelled from it, only to bump into another line he smeared.  He boxed them in, attempting to steer the red and blue into each other, but one of the blues had managed to squirm away.  With its partner trapped, the blue Deftera zipped quickly around the lung.

Derek paid it no mind as he retraced the fading lines of gel, slowly drawing the circle closer to leave the blue at the mercy of one of the reds.  Just as it appeared as though one of the reds would strike, the fleeing blue returned.  Both it and its partner bumped into the line where Derek’s fingers currently were, coating his hand in an icy breath and forcing his eyes to close under the frigid bite.

-----

The sound of a sharp ding startled him.

Derek opened his eyes just in time to see the elevator doors part for him.  He saw his faint reflection in the large window across from him, a soft emerald flow from the shiny floor bouncing off of it.  “Caduceus.” he murmured.

He stepped into the large hall, the same eerie quiet greeting him.  Night had since fallen upon Angeles Bay as indicated by the dark sky.  A silver half moon hung over the horizon, its subtle glow put to shame by the fluorescent lights above him.  Caduceus was hardly a place that knew silence regardless of the hour.  Derek groaned, having a sinking feeling of what awaited him given his previous situation.  A meeting with a personified parasite was something he did not want to experience again, but from the look of things, he did not have much of a choice.

“Better get this over with . . .” he sighed, setting off hopeful that he would be ready for whatever he came across.

After twenty minutes of searching, Derek decided that he was really getting tired of the sound of his foot steps.  That, and the sound of his aggravated sigh.  Being the only things he had heard in that time, he was taken by surprise to hear breathing from beyond a curve in the hallway.

He slowly moved towards the wall, quieting his own breath as he stuck to the shadows.  The hushed whispers continued accompanied by soft clicks against the floor.  Two of them it sounds like . . . could this be it?

Derek pressed himself to the wall as he crept towards the noise.  A soft blue light poured onto the opposite wall, bobbing with the sound of movement.  He arched his brow as he continued, pushing his back against a pillar and slowly peaking out from behind it.  He blinked slightly in response to the light, fluttering his eyes as they adjusted.  His eyes focused quickly, cause his mouth to drop slightly.

“That’s Deftera?”

Derek quickly ducked back behind the pillar, slapping his hands over his mouth and cursing himself mentally.  The whispers stopped and soft footsteps padded towards him.  He pressed himself into the wall as best he could, holding his breath while the blue light spilled over the floor.  The footsteps drew closer, stopping to pivot back in the opposite direction.  An intelligible voice sang out, receiving a lower pitch in response.  Another set of footsteps moved away.

Derek slowly drew his fingers from his mouth, relaxing slightly until he heard the steps pivot again.  He tensed as the glow touched him and sent a chill through his body.  The sharp icy shade of the figure stung eyes again when it stepped before him.  He winced, taking a closer look at it when it no longer hurt to do so.

A pearl white cloak lined with sapphire trims draped her thin frame.  Cobalt hair ran just past her shoulders and her body was much closer to that of a human’s than Kyriaki, the only difference in her unnatural colors and inexplicable glow.

Derek stiffened as she turned and met her deep blue eyes.  Her aura ate away at the shadows, ensuring that he had no means of hiding from her.  She looked at him, surprising him with a soft smile.  The blue shade of her cheeks deepened as she turned away, bashfully watching him from the corner of her eyes.

Still pressed firmly against the wall, his eye brows lifted by the look she gave him, but he grew rigid as she approached.  He threw his glance around and found nothing in the barren hallways to protect himself with.  He rummaged through the medical pack on his hip, his search interrupted as her cool fingers came to rest on his shoulders.

He barely took in the pure stare of her eyes when his lips were engulfed by hers.

Not again . . .

The less than desirable images of his time with Kyriaki flashed in his mind, almost distracting him from the sweet mist she breathed in his mouth.  He stopped as it caressed his tongue for a moment, but the image of Kyriaki’s deformed face quickly deluded it.

He grabbed a random tool from his med back and struck.  A soft buzz broke the silence, followed by a tiny squeak from the blue girl.

She pulled back, her eyes wide and confused as she looked between him and her elbow – where he burned her with his laser.

Derek brandished the tool, raising it as he snarled.  “You’re not fooling me.”  He pressed a small button on the laser.  Another short zap sounded from it, causing her to jump back a few steps.  She blinked helplessly at him, her eyes shining as they pooled with tears.  “Drop the act.” he growled.  He pressed forward in spite of her hurtful look.

“I don’t care how you look.  I know what you are.”

Rushed footsteps boomed down the hall.  He saw the woman’s eyes widen before he turned, feeling his eyes grow as well.

“Ah crap . . .”

Another figure haloed by the blue aura appeared, this time a man.  The shades of his clothes and skin matched those of his female companion, though the sleeves were absent from his shirt to reveal a pair of powerful arms.  His hair was tied back, doing nothing to hide his snarl.  He pulled his arm back and drew a beam on the surgeon.  Derek, on the other hand, had his gaze locked with the fist which began to glow.

“Urk . . .”

Derek rushed past the woman as he heard something blast behind him.  A cold jet brushed his shoulder and sprayed an icy blast against the wall.  He paled and tightened his sprint, barely dodging another blast he felt rush for him.  The large window pane shattered as he ran by it, sprinkling shards of cold glass down on him.  He stiffened as a particularly large piece spiraled by his ear.  Seeking shelter from the jagged rain, he ran through a stairwell entrance and flew up the steps, not slowing until several fights were put behind him and his legs nearly gave out under him.

He propped himself against the wall and struggled to catch his breath.  “Great . . . ice wizards . . .” he groaned and slid down.  “As if a perverted, samurai monster wasn’t enough.”  Having slid to his back, Derek allowed his body to sprawl on the floor as he stared at the ceiling with exhausted contempt.  One ice flinging mage was more than he felt he could chew.  Two was, in his opinion, beyond cruel.  Then, Derek’s stomach twisted, recalling that he had another pair of Deftera to think about.

If the blue Deftera were ice elements, he had a sinking feeling he knew what the red Deftera would be.  He took in another labored breath from his run, not caring how immature he sounded as he allowed himself to whine.

“Why me?”

-----

Derek slowly crept down the halls with a fire extinguisher lowered at his side.  Perhaps not the best weapon against two fire wielding personified viruses but he had not much choice but to take what he was given.  There were doubts of course.  His assumption that the red Deftera pair would be fire elementals could be wrong, and he did not have a clue how to go up against the blue set.  For now, his focus was on scoping out his situation and trying not to get killed.

His musings were broken by a rapidly twitching glow from down the hall.  A small brush of warmth touched his skin coupled with the orange red tint of the light.  The grip on the extinguisher tightened as he quietly slipped into an open room.  He ducked behind the door and peered through the crack, hearing a pair of footsteps draw near.  A ruby glow preceded the solid red figure it haloed.  The red Deftera, clearly female, stepped into his field of vision.  Her deep orange hair was spiked just to the nape of her neck, swaying slightly as she looked about.  Clothes of the same color tightly hugged her frame, much less humble than those of the blue Deftera girl, covering little more than the essentials.

Another figure was with her, a male with spiked hair and clothes matching his companion.  Fortunately, the apparel below his belt was a bit more modest, going down to his ankles where it was cut off by a pair of charcoal boots.  His hand formed on the girl’s fleshy hip and the two turned towards one another, breaking into a passionate kiss.  Their make out session grew, oblivious to Derek’s inward cringes.

“They’re so . . . horny . . .” he grumbled quietly.

He looked nervously at the extinguisher.  “Well, here goes something.”

He moved slowly towards the opening, watching as they stood completely distracted.  He burst through the door and sent a spray of foam at them.  A gnarled, electric screech came from them both and they brought their arms up to guard them.  His upper hand was short lived and the foam stream sputtered as it ran low.

In a panicked motion, Derek whipped the extinguisher by the hose and blindly brought it down towards the two.  His attack was brought to a halt as the canister was caught firmly in a red hand.  Derek froze up in spite of the fiery eyes that glared him down.  He had only a second to lock up when the male Deftera yanked the extinguisher and the hand that still tightly gripped the hose.  Derek pitched forward, a searing pain engulfing in the right side of his stomach before he thought to let go.

He stumbled back, tenderly clutching where the blazing punch had struck him.  He was quick to regret that.  His fingers twitched away from the wound as he hissed.  That was about all the time he was allotted to suffer.  As he stumbled back, a bright glow of orange drew his gaze towards the angry pair.  The male Deftera’s fist was engulfed in a small flame.

Derek scrambled on his feet and turned to run the other way.  He had only gotten a few steps when he pitched forward and screamed in pain.

His right shoulder burned and the combined searing from that of his gut brought him down.  He collapsed to the floor, the cool linoleum providing some feeble relief to his charred flesh.  That did not last long.  As Derek propped himself up ever so slightly, he saw a bright red figure appear in the polished floor, just behind his own reflection.  His eyes widened as he saw Deftera’s fist reared back, ready to land with another blazing punch.  He rolled away, narrowly avoiding the hit.

The punch cracked the floor, causing the tiles and concrete to crumble underneath them.  The red male crashed through but Derek was able to grasp an edge of the jagged hole.  Pain biting his tensed muscles, he grunted through it and struggled to pull himself up.  He managed to prop his elbows onto the floor when a hand closed around his collar.

The lady red Deftera pulled him up, choking him as she dragged him to a room and threw him against the wall.  She pushed into his injured shoulder, silencing his broken hisses as she engulfed his mouth.  He squirmed under her spicy kiss, trying not to let the taste fog his mind.  He reached for his med pack only to have his hand grabbed.

“Guh!” the pained gasp pushed through his teeth as he was slammed to the floor.

She straddled him, blocking his reach to the med pack.  She gently traced his mouth with her finger, forcing him to look into her churning eyes.  A swirl of red and yellow danced within, projecting an unsavory amount lust and passion.  She pressed her lips to his again as her hot nails slipped under his scrubs, clawing him playfully.  Though gentle, the nails left burns in their path and his struggles only aggravated his wounds.

The electric hum from before sounded from the hall, more beautiful in its sound thought it was clearly irate.  The lady red pulled away from him, smiling and pressing a warm finger to his lips.  She slowly got up from him and went to the hall.

Derek tried to get up, but the burns proved too much.  His breath was uneven and labored in response to the pain, leaving him unable to take in enough to retain consciousness.  He somewhat welcomed the darkness, as it dulled the agony from his mind.

-----

Sidney gripped the “report” the British Navy had handed over to him.

Eidoth International was a front for Delphi’s research, shocking perhaps, but nothing they did not know already.  They were hiding something.  Whatever it was, they had no right to do so, not when two of his best employees had suffered because of it.

He reached for the phone, mentally swearing to himself that there would be hell to pay if he did not get answers.

“Chief!”

He looked up to see Tyler standing at his office door.  “What’s going on, Dr. Chase?”

“It’s Derek!  His vitals are dropping like a rock!”

He stood up quickly, tipping his office chair from his abrupt and rigid move.  “What happened, Chase?”

“We’re not sure.” He followed Sidney’s swift walk to the recovery ward, doubling his own steps to keep up.  “One minute he was stable and the next, his blood pressure started going down.”

“Who’s seeing to him?”

“Dr. Clarks.  He’s trying to stabilize him and figure out what caused it.”

A frantic buzz from the monitors sounded down the hall.  The air pulsated around them as they drew near, all but slamming them head on when they entered the room.  Dr. Clarks and Leslie were at Derek’s bedside, the surgeon himself just as still as ever, though his already weakened breath seemed to grow shallower by the second.  “Hang the IV drip, Leslie.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

She quickly did as Stephen commanded while he injected a shot of adrenaline into Derek’s other hand.  His vitals rose slightly, only to drop just as quickly, hitting zero as his heart stopped completely.

“Leslie, power the defibrillator!”

Stephen immediately began chest compressions while the defibrillator charged.  Tyler gritted his teeth, his eyes large as he watched his best friend flat line.  Sidney’s hands merely clenched at his sides, his expression stoic.

“Clear!”

Leslie moved in with the paddles once Stephen stepped away.  Derek’s body twitched from the shock, as did the electrocardiograph, which began beeping rhythmically.  A collective sigh was heard as his pulse returned, his breathing becoming steadier as well.  “Dr. Clarks, his vitals . . .”

He looked up at Leslie eyeing the monitors strangely.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing . . . they’re rising . . .”

True enough, Derek’s vitals were slowly climbing out of the danger zone, his over all readings stabilizing as well.  “Glad that’s over with.” Tyler breathed.

“Don’t relax just yet, Dr. Chase.” Sidney said.  “He could crash again at any time.  Keep monitoring him and let me know if this happens again.”

“Hey Chief.”

All eyes turned towards the voice, seeing Victor stand in the door way, his arms crossed into his usual pose.

“I just finished analyzing Stiles’ blood sample.  You’re gonna want to see this.”

-----

Having been burned and violated by a pair of fire elementals, Derek was not expecting to be shivering when he woke up.  Yet, the first thing he noticed was the chattering of his teeth.  As something cold was pressed against his chest, he could have assumed it was a bag of ice was it not surprisingly soft.  He opened his eyes and found a different ceiling brushed by a blue glow above him.  Blue . . .?  Blue!  Deftera!

No sooner had his eyes starting scanning the room did he find them locked with a pair of cerulean.  The female blue Deftera was beside him, but she simply smiled as she continued pressing against his stomach.  “Wh-what are you doing?” he stuttered, confused and freezing.  He moved to push himself up, but she placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.

It was only after she pressed into his shoulder that Derek noticed the significant reduction of pain he was in.  Lifting his head slightly, he saw his scrubs had been unbuttoned, leaving his torso exposed and burn clearly visible.  He watched as the wound slowly receded and left healed skin behind.  A soothing coolness rippled from where her hand was pressed, taking his pain away.

He blinked when not a trace of the burn was left on his abdomen, his shoulder following suit.

“Why?  Why did you heal me?” he looked up at her with a severe expression.  “What are you trying to pull?”

Her face remained calm as she slowly traced his cheek.  He visibly shuddered at her icy touch and his exposed chest.  Her look turned sympathetic as she reached for a bundled blanket at the foot of the cot, smiling warmly as she wrapped it around him.

Derek was too befuddled to protest, and the warm blanket was nice, but he found himself back away as she moved in for another kiss.  He placed a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back as she sat up.  He reached for his med pack but felt only his bare hip.

“Where’s my headset?” he murmured and looked down.  His gaze was brought back up as he watched her move away.  She turned towards a chair, where his headset was propped.  Derek closed his scrubs and took it as she handed it to him, buckling the belt around his waist and draping the headset around his neck once again.  He looked back up at her as she continued to smile at him.

“Um . . .so . .?”  He looked her over, noticing her disarmed pose.  “You got a name?”

A short giggle escaped her, causing her hair to bounce slightly.  A soft chime came from her, both inhuman and serene in its sound.

“Crystal . . .” he murmured, the sparkling stone forming in his mind at the sound.  His eyes instantly grew large.

Dammit!  Don’t go around naming it!  It’s a tumor causing murderer!

He looked up at her.  No matter how beautiful she looks . . . it’s just a disease . . .

Crystal moved towards him and Derek grabbed the hands that moved to frame his face.  “Hey.  None of that.”

A loud crash from the door startled them both.  They looked towards the entrance as a potent blue shine thrust within.  The male blue Deftera’s had already worn a tense expression upon bursting into the room.  It loosened up as his eyes flickered between Derek, Crystal and their held hands.  The tension returned to his face with a vengeance, angrier than before.

“Uh oh!”

Derek leapt off the cot just as it broke under an icy blast.  The Deftera cleared the distance between the door and Crystal in a single jump, the floor quacking slightly upon his landing.  He stood protectively before her, a blizzard swirling in his eyes.  The aura around him grew and brightened, casting tiny ice shards within the swirling winds.

Derek rushed for the door, heart pounding as he slammed it behind him.  He only managed to take a single step before he found himself propelled down the hall, the door, frame and pieces of the wall joining him as they were blown off.  He crumpled amongst the pile of broken wood, groaning slightly at his rough spill.  A pair of rushed footsteps drew his attention forward, allowing him to also see a flicker of red light move in time with the sounds.  “Red Deftera . . .” he growled, looking back as he heard the blue versions closing in from behind.  “This could get ugly.”

A patch of shadows behind a garbage can and sink caught his eye.  Not the best places for hiding, but was something.  He rushed and ducked behind it as best he could just as the two auras spilled a light purple on the floor.  The red and blue pairs stopped and locked eyes, their expressions unreadable.  Derek shrunk back even farther, closing his eyes and bracing himself for the oncoming fight.  He hoped they would finish each other off or the battle would move before things got too intense.

Having anticipated angry shouts or elemental blasts, he was surprised to hear the silence broken by a several retreating footsteps.

Huh?

Derek opened his eyes and watched as the blue Deftera pair walked away.  The red pair had evidently done the same, based on the retreating red glow and footsteps.  The surgeon had succumb to a perplexed induced quiet as the echoing clicks against the floor grew soft, a thin blanket of fluorescent white shining the hall in the colored lights’ wake.

Long after both sets had disappeared and left him in silence, Derek had still not emerged from his hiding spot.  He stared blankly at a wall across from him with chin resting in the palm of his hand and his mind churning.  “Why didn’t they fight?” he murmured.  “Red and blue Deftera are usually really aggressive towards each other.”  His soft sigh echoed in the small confines of his hiding places.  He knit his brows, drumming his fingers on his cheek.

Maybe . . . they didn’t have a reason to fight . . .

That simple musing flicked a switch.  Derek shot up slightly as his mind traced over various images of the Deftera.

The blue pair holding hands when he first spotted them . . .

The red pair aggressively making out . . .

The fondness the females of both pairs seemed to have for him . . .

And the jealous rage of the blue male when he found him holding his companion’s hands.

“But that doesn’t mean I can’t give them a reason to!”

-----

Though Derek’s search of the building started out rigorous, his nerves were starting to get the better of him.  To say that his plan was risky would be putting it mildly.  Regretfully, the threat of failure was not the only thing making him nervous.

He suppressed his shaking as he crept down the hall, forcing it to still as best he could when he spotted a flicker of red light down the hall.  He took a deep breath.  “Okay, here we go.”

He pressed himself to the wall and stuck to the fading shadows.  He carefully made his way to the end of the hall, where it forked off in two opposite directions.  The red pair was not far down the left turn of the hall.  Derek was able to watch them from a reflection in a window where the hall ended.  While it was not surprising that they were making out once again, he could not help but shudder at it.

Ugh . . . gotta get him away from her.

His search for a diversion was cut short when he noticed the Research and Development lab just across from him.  He quietly made his way over to the door, smiling as he saw the arsenal of lab equipment at his disposal.  His smile dropped when he spotted something on the far side of the room.  “What the crap?” he mumbled, making his way towards it.  He blinked slightly as he reached it before his eyes narrowed in annoyance.  “They get an espresso machine?”  He snorted and smacked the side of the machine with his hand.  “We can’t even have a Mr. Coffee in the break room, and they get an espresso machine!”

He sighed and began looking around again.  “Well, at least I don’t have to feel guilty about breaking Victor’s lab equipment now.”  He ran his fingers along the counter, drumming them slightly as he scanned the shelves.  He stopped at a workstation and slid a long glass beaker from the stand.  “This should do nicely.”

The red Deftera pair was still at it when he emerged from the lab, beaker in hand.  Pressing his back against the wall again, he slipped towards the edge of it and observed them in the window, trying not to feel like a voyeur in the process.  Their eyes were closed as they deepened their kiss, pivoting slightly in one another’s arms.  As the male’s back slowly turned towards him, Derek stepped from the corner of the wall and hurled the beaker over their heads.  He stepped back immediately, catching a short glimpse of it spiraling in the window before it faded into darkness.  A tiny shatter of glass perked the Deftera from their embrace and drew their gaze towards the end of the hall.

Okay, good.  Now I . . .

Derek’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash.  With large eyes, he listened as additional glass shards and metal crashed against the floor, causing a loud rumble to shake the walls.  His eyes were still wide as the sound faded and the reflection in the window had shown the two rushing towards the corridor’s end.

Uh . . . ooops.

He recovered from his blunder, seeing the pair reach the end of another forked passage and split up.  “Well, it worked.” he murmured.  He followed on fast but light footsteps, pausing slightly to survey the damage.  A wall clock lay among the shards of its glass face and the beaker, entangled in the wires of another machine which he could only assume had caused a domino effect.  Shrugging the incident off, he glanced down each hall just in time to see the male Deftera enter a room.

Derek moved down the opposite hall, sticking behind the remaining clutter for coverage.  He slowed as he closed in on a red aura.  The female red had her hands on her exposed hips, throwing her head back and forth.

Ugh . . . I do not want to do this . .

He took a breath and pushed himself through the urge to recoil.  He stiffly tapped her on the shoulder, pressing his lips to hers the moment she turned.  She became rigid under his forward move as did Derek, thinking for a moment that he had made a grave mistake.  Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck after a few strained seconds.  Though relieved about not having his various body parts being charred and ripped apart, Derek had to suppress a cringe as she lapped the inside of his mouth.

He stroked her warm hair and pulled from her embrace as slowly as possible.  Throwing on a suggestive smirk, he squeezed her hand and jogged down the hall, motioning her to follow him in a playful round of tag.  She grinned hungrily as well, tossing her hair back as she ran after him.

As he led her on the cat and mouse chase, Derek could not help but get a sick feeling in his stomach.  For all his academic skills, Tyler had been quite the tease with the female student body during their college days.  While Derek did admire his friend, if there was one trait he did not want to copy, it was this.  If he ever finds out bout this somehow, he’ll never let me live it down.

The chase lasted several minutes, Derek allowing himself to get caught a few times to keep her interested.  He began getting nervous as the time passed, fearing that mild groping and tongue kisses would soon not be enough to sate her lust.  It seemed to be getting to that point.  He allowed her to catch him again, finding his body pressed against the wall as her inner thigh rubbed against his Southern regions.  His involuntary grumble was swallowed as she all but shoved her tongue down his throat.  Sweat began to collect on his brow.

A blue light caught his eye.  He moved his glance toward it as best he could, feeling his heart jolt in relief as he noticed it silhouetted by a single, female figure.

Oh thank God . .

He pushed back into the red Deftera’s kiss.  Slowly running his hands down her waist, he fingered the band of the shorts that barely covered her hips and legs.  He felt her body quiver in excitement and caught her hands just as the moved to undo his belt.  He looked into her eyes, pressing a finger over his forced smirk before motioning for her to follow him once again.  He broke into an abrupt sprint and her compliant footsteps followed after him.

Turning the corner where the blue aura had disappeared, he took a quick glance over his shoulder.

No good, she’s following too close.  I was hoping to save this for an emergency, but . . .

Derek turned his eyes forward and narrowed them, drawing the star shape in his mind.  With his surroundings grey and sluggish, he was easily able to put the necessary distance between himself and the lady red.  Another turn of a corner revealed Crystal, her back turned towards him and thankfully alone.

Why is she alone anyway?

The small musing found its way into his mind as he caught glimpse of the side of her face.  A somber mask coated it as her eyes carelessly scanned the wall.

Maybe her boyfriend’s mad at her . . . although . . .

In the midst of his Healing Touch, the short flashes that played in his mind retained a colorless state, reminiscent of an old film reel.  He saw her eyes widen in fear upon their first meeting, just before he turned to see her male companion attack.  He saw that again after she had healed him, when he barged in on the both of them in the recovery room.  In that frantic moment, Derek was too preoccupied with getting out alive to notice what his subconscious mind had picked up.  Crystal had placed a hand on the blue male’s shoulder, her eyes scared and pleading for the surgeon to be spared.

Wait!  What the hell am I doing?  Derek reprimanded himself, ripping the mental film reel in two.  I’m not starting to feel sorry for it, am I?  It’s not human!  It’s a disease!  A deadly disease!  He let out a short breath.  It has to be destroyed!

Derek squeezed his eyes shut, releasing the Healing Touch and reopening them to a world of color.  He reached out for her hand, gently tugging on it as she jumped in surprise.  Her startled expression turned to a warm, shy smile upon being turned around to face him.  He returned the smile, cradling her cheek as he leaned in for a gentle kiss.  Crystal relaxed in his hold and timidly returned it.  As he invited her minty tongue into his mouth, and she shyly obliged the request, Derek decided he liked kissing Crystal more than the red Deftera female.

But she’s just a disease!  He reminded himself, his heart skipping as her cool hands moved to caress his face.  Just a disease . .

A squeak sounded against the floor behind them.

They broke off their kiss with a gasp, turning to see a shuddering crimson figure.  The female red’s eyes widened as they frantically darted between Derek and Crystal.  Her lips trembled from the betrayal, becoming still as they were pulled back into a snarl.  A tiny gasp escaped Crystal as the fiery eyes were locked with hers.  She launched forward, roughly pushing Derek to the floor as her flame engulfed fist slammed into Crystal’s stomach.

A high pitched cry emitted from her as she stumbled back several paces.  Pain and fear contorted her face for only a split second.  As her cerulean eyes took in the attacker, they narrowed and squeezed out an aqua glow.  Throwing her hands forward, Crystal let out a blizzard of ice at the charging Deftera.  The red screeched and covered her face from the attack.  Flames erupted from her wrists as she swatted at the icy shards, leaving the two in a power struggle.

Derek watched as the evenly matched Deftera girls pressed on with their attacks.  “Well, that takes care of them.” he whispered, gradually slipping away unnoticed and backing behind a corner.  “Now, how to deal with the . . .” he stopped as he turned, finding himself faced with a potent red light.  The raised, blazing fist instantly grabbed his attention.  “Crap!”

He barely dodged the punch, leading the male red back to the struggle between the ladies.  Derek braced himself as he felt a fury swipe charge behind him.  He prepared to evade it, but was surprised when the male charged passed him completely.  What the . . ?

The arched brow he had quickly rose in shock as he watched the male dive in, slamming a fiery blast directly into Crystal’s chest, sending her flying.  “Hey!” Derek yelled, his shout ignored by the red Deftera that perused their airborne adversary.  Disease or not, ganging up on someone like that was cheap.

He followed them into an OR, seeing Crystal struggle to her feet as the other pair prepared to double team her again.  Growling, Derek rushed to a sink and turned the water pressure up as far as it would go.  The arrogant smirks of the red pair were quickly torn from their faces as a spray of cold water sizzled against their flesh.  “Not that I expected you bastards to fight fair, but we’re playing under my rules now.”  Derek gritted his teeth as he moved in with the sink hose.

As the red Deftera flailed under the water jet, Derek turned his gaze to Crystal, who had risen to her feet.  “Hey, let ‘em have it!” he yelled to her.  She looked over to him, giving him a smile and nod before turning her attention to her enemies.  Though her battered body stumbled a bit as she powered another ice blast, it drew a cry of pain from the two upon its launch.

The perturbed red couple did not tolerate their assault for long.  An angry duet preceded a fiery blast, cutting through the steam that enveloped them and throwing their opponents back.  The streams of water and ice protected Derek and Crystal from a full barrage of the fire, but the resulting steam was painful all the same.  Derek pushed himself up, the water hose whipping around wildly from the pressure.  He was instantly downed again as it smacked him across the face and sent his glasses flying.

Ignoring the surgeon, the red Deftera couple moved in on Crystal, grinning as they watched her slowly try to sit up.  She had just pushed herself to her elbows when the red female’s flame drenched hand caught her frightened eye.  She gasped, squirming back as the fire blast charged.  The blood thirsty glint in her eyes was short lived, as a blue light directly struck the red Deftera.  Her lithe frame crashed against the opposite wall, leaving the remaining three to turn to where the hit had come from.

The blue male stood in the doorway, his eyes still raging a blizzard white.  Derek had just recovered his glasses and watched the stare down between the two men.  Growing uneasy, he saw the girls do the same, their fists starting to glow with their respected colors.  “Oh no.”

He had just managed to scramble behind an over turned cot when all hell broke loose.  Curling and covering his head, he braced himself as the savage battle raged on.  A flinch overcame him with every pained yell or deadly hit that sounded.  Narrow misses caused him to withdraw even further and murmur whispered hopes that his shield would remain intact.  He dared not try to run from the room.  Time drew out forever as the violent scuffle crashed about the walls.

It ended with frightening abruptness, just as it had begun.

The harrowing screams died to silence.  All movement ceased.  Derek slowly lifted his head.  The bright colored lights that had engulfed the room settled to a tiny murmur of blue.  “Blue?” he whispered, seeing the soft glow illuminate the otherwise pitch black room.

Then he heard it.

A pained gasp rustled the quiet.  Feeble scrapes pawed at hard floor, coupled by mild sobbing.  Derek stood and looked over the cot, shock splitting his face.  “My God . . .”

Crystal lay mangled amid the bodies of her partner and the red Deftera.  The forms of the deceased had grown completely black, looking as burned out embers or hollow stones.  Crystal, on the other hand, retained her serene glow, though the range on her aura diminished and had given her a ghostly presence.  Another pained cry came from her as she locked eyes with Derek.  Her gnarled hand trembled, trying to reach out for him, only to fall limply to the floor.

Derek walked towards her, kneeling beside her and noticing a large tear in her side.  He hissed at it, noticing thick sparkling liquid ooze from it.  Her blood, he assumed.  A shaking breath fluttered from her lips as her entire frame trembled.  He looked into the rippling pool of her eyes as tears flooded over her cheeks.  Derek sighed, unsure of what to do with himself.

She was a disease.  Just a horrible, murderous, disease . . .

Still, he gently grasped her hand, squeezing it and placing his other hand on her forehead.  “Shhh.” he whispered, flicking a tuft of her bangs from her salt soaked brow.  Her quivering mouth formed a smile as she closed her eyes, her breath slowing to shallow but even gasps.  Crystal’s blue aura faded with each exhale, draping the two of them in unrelenting darkness until finally, it was gone.

-----

With a fluttered blink, Derek found himself back in the chamber.  He instantly looked down at his patient, relieved to find Amy’s lung completely healed and free of tumors.  Her vitals were at a healthy 85 and a quick check of the chiral reaction revealed it to be negative.  “Good.” he sighed, suturing up the incision.  A swift disinfecting coat of gel and bandage later, Amy was well on the path to recovery.  The only thing now was for her to sleep and let her body take it from there.

“She’s safe . . .” he murmured, drawing the sheet up to her chin.  He let out an easy sigh as the color slowly seeped back into her face.  “Poor girl, she’s too young to have to go through this twice.”  He carefully brushed a few rouge bangs from her eye lashes, his smile dipping as unease churned inside of him.

“She’s safe . . . . so why do I feel so terrible?”