Dark Angel, part four

Continued from: [link]


Helena Koch woke up screaming in the darkness. She could remember everything. How the gigantic cycloptian woman had ripped her arm free from her shoulder like it was an over-cooked chicken wing. How the hot blood had gushed and jetted out of her. The sound of the shotgun blast that almost tore her body in two. The incredible white-hot agony and how she had wished for death to put an end to it. The rank odor that was the exposed contents of her spilled intestines mingled with the acrid stench of the gasoline she had been thrown in. It was soon replaced by the smells of her own body being burned alive as the Crimson Conservative wreathed her in flames. Her flesh had blackened and sloughed off as she flailed and screamed until the flames had seared her throat and consciousness mercifully...finally left her. She looked around in the room she was in. There were no lights on, only pitch blackness. Somehow she could see perfectly in it, her vision adjusting to the greens of optical night vision. She looked down at her arms. Both of them were now present, but they felt detached...like they weren't hers. She moved her fingers and could hear the tiniest sounds of servos whirling and clicking under her synthetic skin. She was barely picking anything up on the thermographic sensor that was also invading her vision. She wanted to cry as realization came to her that her toned, athletic, perfect Aryan body was now almost completely robotic but no tears came. They never would again.

Helena forced herself to stand up, gritting her teeth against the new onslaught of mechanical sounds that permeated from under her plastic-alloy skin. Her legs felt so heavy...clumsy. She leaned forward too far and almost fell over, crouching down and catching herself with her alien feeling hand. It was then that she realized that she hadn't been breathing. Koch began to panic just as the door slid open across the chamber and the form of the Reichsführer, clad in her black SS uniform, strode purposefully into the room. Koch watched her with her mouth open, like a fish trying to gulp oxygen from the water. The lights came up slowly until she began to make out colors and patterns, shadows...like everything was becoming hi-definition, which it was. It felt like she was seeing things for the very first time. She eyes swam around the room as Ilsa Hauppman crouched down a few feet in front of her and took a breath breath, letting it out slowly.

"You have the Red Doktor to thank for your present condition," Ilsa began, "along with myself for the specifications. You have Scharführer Gottfried to thank for making sure you lived long enough to make it to the operating table."

"Jessica..." Helena said slowly her voice sounding like her own, but raspy and almost hollow. She stopped speaking as if hearing her own voice disquieted her.

"Indeed," her Reichsführer continued unconcerned, "however we had to replace all four of your limbs and most of your internal organs were too badly burned to be of any further use to you, or more importantly to me. Herr Doktor has upgraded you with all of Project: Grendel's old hardware and software with a number of additions and I have personally supervised most of the procedures. Your cybernetic blades, much like Gottfried's are equipped with powerful venom dispensers containing the poison of the Enhydrina schistosa. Sure death within a few minutes. You also have a prototype "Vertigo Effect" in addition to all of Grendel's other weapons and abilities, including being capable of employing the energy-collecting burst similar to the gauntlets I designed."

Helena nodded her head, trying not to wince at the sounds she assumed only she could hear. "Thank you Reichsführer...I am not worthy of al..."

Ilsa's eyes flashed with such anger and intensity that Helena stopped mid-sentence as she cut her off.

"No you are not worthy! You are too full of personal ambition and too thirsty for power. You cost me an entire squadron of some of my finest troops and officers. You set me back millions of dollars in hardware and almost cost Scharführer Gottfried, who is worth millions in hardware alone, her miserable life! You compromised my security to not only Olga Yezhov, but to this new threat...this fucking verdammt amerikanisch! I no longer have a mole in the Department of Homeland Security! All these failures are placed solely at your feet!"

"Please Mein Reichsführer...I am sorry...I only wanted to please you! To bring you the broken body of your most mortal foe for your honor and glory! So that the world could see that you alone..."

"And that is why you are still alive Helena Koch: your loyalty to me and to the vision of the Führer," the woman known as Genocide cut her off a second time, "You always were the most beautiful and brilliant of my officers. I did not make these decisions rashly my dear. Now listen to me carefully. First you are stripped of your rank of Obersturmbannführer. If you want that back you will have to prove to me that you want it bad enough and earn it. Impress me like you once did."

Helena nodded again, meeting her Reichsführer's eyes with her own cybernetic ones. "Who is my replacement? At least tell me it isn't Keller."

"Nein, do you think I'm an idiot? The girl is fanatic and loyal...sees the Aryan perfection that I am and wishes to emulate it...but she is too dumb and too impulsive to lead any of my soldiers. No, Anne Holt is your replacement for now. She has proven to be very resourceful and cunning. As a politician, she almost rivals myself. You are to have the rank of Obersturmführer for now. Understood?"

"Yes Reichsführer!" Helena said in a loud, crisp tone.

Ilsa stood up and began to circle her once second-in-command like a shark circling her prey.
"Your new code name is to be 'Jormungandr', named for the great Norse serpent that will defeat Thor and poison the very sky during Ragnarök. Herr Doktor was feeling a tad theatrical when he came up with it but he knows my great love for Wagner and it has given me inspiration. You are very much a work in progress Helena. I am going to have you constantly upgraded and enhanced until you are the perfect weapon with which to bring an end to this world and usher in a new one...an Aryan one where 'I' will rule. You may not even resemble a human being by the end of it. Henderson has already begun to experiment with biological implants and genetic splicing."

Helena arched an eyebrow but knew better than to say anything. Between Ilsa's own chemistry and twisted ideas and Doctor Henderson's vast knowledge and imagination she knew that Ilsa meant every word of it.

"Right now you are thinking about how you could possibly avoid such a fate. I tell you it is inevitable. For one, you are far too loyal Helena. You want to see the world purged of blacks and Jews and Hispanics and every other lesser race just as much as I, with the Aryan race...our race.. fulfilling it's rightful destiny. Secondly I had installed at the base of your skull a powerful cranial bomb. Just enough to blow your brains into jelly if you ever disobey me again."

Helena's jaw dropped open as Ilsa smirked at her from across the room, riding up and down on the heels and toes of her jackboots.
"Mein Reichsführer I would never..."

"Of course you won't, "Ilsa replied very matter of factly, still continuing to smirk, "I know I can trust you above all my other officers and disciples because you are still my favorite Jormungandr, and you want to sit at my right hand when we finally have the victory we have fought so hard to earn...no matter what your physical appearance might be."

No necessarily true but Helena was no longer going to be in a condition to speak against her...ever.

"I have a task for you Jormungandr, one I know you will accept with relish and carry off without a hitch," Ilsa smiled and turned around, pulling on the edges of her tight leather gloves, "There is a woman I desire the company of and thus far she has not accepted my more than gracious invitation. Her name is Clemence Wittgener-Mackenzie..."

To be continued...

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Once again this was a collaborative effort between myself and my amazing artist friend , who provided the art and whose input has been invaluable with regards to the storyline.

Ilsa Hauppman (Genocide), Helena Koch (Jormungandr) and the story are all my creations.

The mentioned Crimson Conservative belongs to

This takes place in the fictional setting.