121 Knowing Yourself For Is A Constant Exercise Not A One Time Deal, Unfortunately

Gadiel

May 23, 11:59 am, Canberra, Australia

Gadiel stumbled down the hallway, desperately looking for somewhere to hide. His body shivered in the cold, hospital air conditioning; he only had on the thin, plastic hospital gown, without even socks. Small droplets of blood fell from him nose and arm, marking the way he had come from down the hall.

Despite being the middle of the day in a hospital, there was no one else around. He even checked every room as he walked past them; all the doors were open for some reason. After the fifth door however, Gadiel decided to just keep walking down the hallway until the big reception station at the center of the floor.

The thing about not moving for about a week was that it meant Gadiel's muscles had gotten a bit stiff from not moving. They hadn't atrophied or anything; it was just taking a little for Gadiel to remember how to walk.

As his legs wobbled however, and Gadiel leaned against the wall for support, he found that his head, while light, was feeling a little...strange. He grunted, grabbing his head, as a high pitched squeal shrieked directly in his head.

Gritting his teeth, he walked forward, determined to get to the receptionist station.

A couple of steps later, he collapsed to his knees. The screeching was getting unbearable, piercing directing through his ear and into his mind. Gadiel curled up into a ball, gathered his remaining will, and searched his mind.

It was a nice little trick he picked up from having Ai in his head. It wasn't like he could read someone else's mind or anything, but he could definitely tell when someone was attacking his own. The trick was to know himself, and who he was.

The problem – that Gadiel discovered while he was separating himself from Ai – was that he didn't like a whole lot of who he was. He'd been able to accept enough of himself to discover the door that Ai had attached to him mind, but he knew that he was by no means some sort of psychic master, as evidenced by the currently worsening nosebleed.

There!

A small part of Ai was still latched onto his psyche, sending out his location to everyone in the hospital. Gadiel quickly stamped it out in his mind, then looked up.

His real body also looked up, feeling dizzy. He looked down at his hand, to find it covered in red. He touched his nose once more, and found that the bleeding was only flowing faster.

Well. That probably wasn't good.

No. That didn't matter. He just needed to stay alive.

He grit his teeth, then slowly stood up, staggering. His head felt light, and a little dizzy, his hands shaky as they held onto the wall for support.

He took a shaky step towards the reception station. Then another.

Why did he even need to go there?

The question suddenly popped into his head. Gadiel frowned, taking another step forward.

As he slowly made his way to the station, he reasoned that it was a central place. He could look in all directions, and he could hide behind the desk for cover.

Wait. That made no sense.

He couldn't see all four directions at once. Even less so if he was hiding under the desk.

As he thought this, Gadiel grunted as he collapsed onto the counter-top of the receptionist station, bleeding onto the immaculate, high counter-top. The receptionist station was actually a small square surface, with the computers and monitors underneath the counter-top.

Gadiel took a couple of fistfuls of tissue from one of the boxes on the counter, eyeing all the pamphlets on STIs and other reproductive health. He stuffed his nose full of tissue, and groaned as he climbed onto the counter.

He lay on top of the hard counter for a while, looking up at the sterile LED lights flickering, while he mapped out the hospital in his head.

The hallway he came from was very long, and opposite that was another hallway. To his right was a small indent with four elevators facing each other, and on his left was yet another hallway.

The more he thought, the more his brain cleared, and the easier he found it to focus. He groaned, muscles still aching a little, as he dropped into the reception station. Alright, he just needed to-

"RROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!!"

Gadiel turned, expecting to find a monster coming up at him, only to see a middle aged man in a lab coat leap over the counter with a syringe in his hand. Immediately, Gadiel moved aside, then pushed the man away, letting out just a little cold.

KKKKRRUNCH!

The man was blasted back, breaking through one of the desks and slamming into a wall. Gadiel blinked, and saw that the man's entire upper body was encased in ice, stuck to the wall. Despite that, he was still thrashing against the ice, hitting his head against the wall and kicking as much as his legs would allow. The man's animalistic growling and eyes full of fury left Gadiel feeling a little disgusted, and a little disturbed.

He knew this man; Ai had gloated about how her "puppeteering" power had warped his mind into the perfect little "pet."

Not a trace of human intelligence was left in those eyes. All that was left was a beast-like fury, lashing out at its target.

Whoever this was, they weren't human anymore.

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

Another monster-human rushed at Gadiel. This time, he was a little more ready, and managed to grapple it to the floor. He froze its arms and legs to the ground, leaving it gnashing its teeth at him.

"SKKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-!"

Before another monster-human could get to him, Gadiel turned. He saw the human-monsters coming from the hallway he came from, and sent out some cold out from his feet.

That was the thing about his power; it needed to travel on some sort of surface. Even when he was creating ice spears, all he was really doing was creating cold on top of his palm, then onto the ice he had made over and over again.

He send the cold over to the entryway between the hallway at the reception station, and raised his arms. An ice wall burst from the floor, blocking off their way to him. He could hear the ice cracking a little as the human-monsters all started attacking it, but he had other hallways to wall off.

Like the hoards of other human-monsters coming from the other halls.

No. They weren't really monsters, Gadiel remembered. They were puppets.

Humans that Ai had used her powers on to make them think they were monsters.

Gadiel shook his head. He needed to focus.

He sent out another wave of cold towards another hallway, blocking off another set of monsters. He watched as one female monster crashed head-first into the ice with a sickening crunch, no regards for her bodily safety.

The scene had Gadiel recall what it was like with Ai in his head. His stomach twisted, making him want to throw up as he remembered how gleeful Ai had felt when she had brainwashed those people. He felt a shiver go up his spine as he realized he had that poor excuse for a person inside his head for a whole week. Maybe longer.

"RRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!"

Gadiel felt the wind get knocked out of him as the puppet fell on top of him. It immediately stabbed a syringe in Gadiel's neck.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

Gadiel instantly let out a burst of cold, but only enough to freeze whatever liquid was inside the syringe before it could get injected in him. He pushed the puppet off him, and pulled the syringe out.

The puppet leaped at him once more as Gadiel scrambled to the corner of the station, gaining some space. He noticed another puppet clambering over the countetop, and another behind it.

He needed to get them to stop. Fast.

He placed his hands on the ground, and created a circular pillar, pushing him up and allowing him to see how many monsters were coming. His eyes widened as he realized a whole hoard was coming through.

If he tried to create a wall now, it would take too long. Unless-

Gadiel rose higher, the puppets at the base of his pillar attacking it and making him wobble a bit. He reached out to the ceiling, and touched it.

Immediately, he send cold along the ceiling, and slammed a wall down on the third entryway. At the same time, he heard something crack.

He looked down, to find that the twenty or so puppets that had managed to get through had somehow cracked pillar he was standing on. Turned out ice wasn't much against twenty slightly superhuman puppets.

Gadiel looked around, wobbling on his perch, trying to find some way to avoid the monsters. He quickly placed his hands on the ceiling, creating handholds for him to grab onto.

C-CRACK!

Just in time. The pillar he'd made cracked, a spiderweb of faults rising from the base, before slowly falling over. But Gadiel had more pressing things to worry about.

Like how his handholds were also cracking.

It was only then that he realized how tired he was; normally, he'd be able to create handholds that would hold his weight easily. He'd done it before. But now, in his weakened state, he could barely gather enough cold to make something solid enough to take his weight. His mind was just too tired and lightheaded after fighting off Ai, and the bleeding, and just everything that had happened in this past week.

No wonder the ice pillar was breaking so easily.

Quickly, Gadiel tried to create another handhold, and swung to that, only to find it was more brittle than the last. Desperately, he tried to swing himself towards the elevators; at least that would be away from the puppets.

Two things happened at once.

One, the ice holding Gadiel up crumbled to pieces just as Gadiel had swung himself towards the elevators, sending him flying towards that small inlet.

Two, the ice pillar he���d been on fell in the opposite direction.

Right into the ice wall he made.

The one that blocked off the monsters.

CRASH!

Gadiel's knees absorbed the impact of the fall, but it still sent a shock up and through his body. His legs felt numb and shaky, and they wouldn't listen to him as he tried to get up.

He turned around to find the puppets swarming out from behind the wall, all running straight for him. But before he could do anything-

DING!

...

The elevator chimed.

"Oh for fu-"

WHOOOOOOOOOSH!

A ball of fire burst out from the elevator doors, causing the puppets to momentarily step back. Gadiel felt his heart skip a beat, his eyes widening. Was it...

A short, black man stepped out of the elevator, in a purple vest and spotted dress shirt, his sleeves rolled up. He glared at the puppets for a bit, before turning to Gadiel.

"Miss me?" said Tarik, grinning.