The Legend of Ivan

The body twitched.

“Yes…” Calloway whispered.

Ivan’s eyes opened.

“Can you hear me?” Calloway asked softly.

The machine, the mass of technology on the table, shot bolt upright and screamed.

Eyes wide open and mouth agape, the shrieking of the machine on the table continued for several seconds as the various people present stood completely stunned.

“This isn’t right!” Calloway shouted, clapping his hands over his ears. “This shouldn’t be—”

“Turn it off!” the colonel bellowed. “Shut it down!”

Ivan continued screaming, volume and tone never wavering. The machine appeared to be looking back and forth, fright etched across its eerily lifelike features.

Calloway shook his head. “I don’t understand; this shouldn’t be—”

Pierce seized the doctor by the arm and dragged him close, shouting into his ear. “Turn this damn thing off, now!”

Wincing, Dr. Calloway turned towards the console and punched in a few keys, sending the signal to the device to start a power-down sequence.

The undying scream cranked up in volume, and Calloway fell to the ground, vision blurring and ears feeling as though they were about to burst. Ivan’s arms flailed about, scratching at the resilient synthetic flesh coating his skull.

Seeming to notice people with him for the first time, Ivan shot a glare at Dr. Ymarin and shrieked, “What have you done to me?!” The hideous wailing ceased as Ivan balled his fists at his forehead. Cross-legged on the table, he rocked back and forth.

Ymarin’s mouth was open, quivering, and he stared in horror and confusion. Calloway grasped at the table edge, pulling himself up and punching a few more commands.

“Grrraaaaaaaaagh!!” Ivan flailed backwards, convulsing and resuming the agonized screams. His arms thrashed violently, denting the table upon which he lay. One hand slammed into his chest, clutching.

The reactor control device smashed easily. Weak residual currents coursed into and through Ivan’s hands, dispersing in the energy absorbent flesh.

Calloway’s mouth fell open as the console he worked at went dark. Whirling around, he saw the twisted bits of metal and circuitry clenched in Ivan’s large fist. “Oh no…” he whispered. Paling, he turned to the colonel. “I… I can’t shut it down.”

Clenching his teeth, Ivan slid off the table to unsteady feet. No longer screaming, the machine jerked his gaze around, a terrified fury more than evident on his features.

Colonel Pierce snapped an energy pistol out of a holster and slammed a fist through the glass and into an emergency button located on the wall. Red light pulsed and klaxons blared with the message, “Warning. Warning. Emergency quarantine in effect.”

Blast doors on the outside of the lab slid shut, cutting off the view of the startled soldiers. Ivan snapped his gaze all around, confused by the activity. Settling on the only challenging figure, Ivan’s expression changed to a snarl.

Not waiting for him to charge, Colonel Pierce snapped off several shots. Yellow bursts of energy impacted Ivan’s body, splashing across the flesh. They dissipated without effect, and fear crossed the colonel’s eyes.

Bellowing, Ivan hurled the handful of twisted metal and electronics at the colonel. Calloway screamed in fright as the broken device crashed into the colonel’s chest, smashing his sternum and several ribs. Pierce was thrown backward by the impact, slamming into the wall before crumpling to the ground.

Energy crackled across Ivan’s flesh. Anger remained in his feature, but there was no longer any sign of fear or pain. Calloway trembled as Ivan glanced around the room, taking in his surroundings. His gaze landed first upon the meek form of Ymarin, who gasped.

“What have you done to me?” Ivan growled, stepping towards the surgeon.

Ymarin held out his hands and shook his head. His mouth worked up and down, but the surgeon’s terrified mind found no words.

“What have you done to me?” Ivan repeated, looming over Ymarin.

Trembling, the surgeon’s voice cut loose in a rapid babble. “Please, I didn’t, there was nothing- I couldn’t, I don’t know what the problem, certainly wasn’t my fault—”

A massive hand thrust forward and closed around the surgeon’s throat, cutting off the frightened stream of nonsense. Ymarin’s eyes bulged, veins throbbing on his forehead as Ivan effortlessly pulled him to eye level. “It hurts,” he hissed.

“Not… fault…” Ymarin gurgled, face purple and pulling weakly at the hand which strangled him.

During this, Calloway cowered, huddled beneath the workbench and too terrified to assist his colleague. The colonel was already unconscious or dead- the doctor couldn’t tell -bleeding on the ground with the reactor device embedded in his chest. The energy pistol lay at his side. Trembling, the doctor crawled forward, grasping the weapon.

A shadow loomed over him.

Calloway let out a scream as he was seized by the collar and dragged up off the ground. “Pleasepleasepleaseplease!” he babbled. “I didn’t do it; it wasn’t me!”

Ivan slammed him face first onto the center table. Calloway’s forehead rebounded off the hard metal, sending a burst of stars into his vision. Consciousness clung by a thread as Ivan turned him over, grasping his lab coat with both hands. Warm blood rushed out of the doctor’s forehead.

“What am I?!” Ivan screamed.

The doctor’s awareness swam far beneath reality. There came the muddled blaring of computerized warnings and some very loud shouting nearby, flashing red lights, and blood spilling down his face. Calloway held a vague awareness of the bone-rattling shaking of his body as Ivan demanded answers to questions.

Calloway’s vision had fallen to a complete gray, and it took several moments for a random thought to tell him Ivan had released him. Half-conscious, Calloway rolled over and fell to the ground. Nausea roiled up from within, and he braced himself on all fours while overcome with hideous retching.

Reality flashed in occasional pulses, like a time-lapsed recording. Banging and screeching metal resounded as he heard Ivan tear through the walls. Flashes of yellow came along with screaming as soldiers failed to stop him. Calloway noted vague emotions of horror as the twisted body of the former surgeon lay upon the ground, eyes wide and sightless. Calloway stumbled outside the gaping hole in the lab wall to see more broken, unconscious, and dead bodies. Trevors lay sprawled near the break room, blood dribbling down a head injury.

The elevator doors yawned open, but only sparking cables appeared where a comfortable car should have been. Calloway tripped and sprawled to the ground. Coughing, he rolled over. Sweat and blood stung his eyes, nausea crawled over him. Incessant pounding in his skull filled his every sensation, and the doctor wondered what possibly could have gone wrong.

* * *

“And so?” I asked as the madman standing next to me ceased speaking, staring at one of the glowing green diagnostic lights on the wall.

The man blinked, breaking out of his deep thought. “Erm, yeah. Uh, Calloway was dragged outta there by soldiers and medical people sometime later. They patched him up and questioned him to no end.” He tugged at his scraggly beard. “He was one of the folks shipped out to deep space exploration detail: not a soul to talk to for hundreds, thousands of light years.”

Frowning, I responded, “Were they able to find out what happened?”

“There were a lot of guesses, but they figured that Dr. Ymarin had screwed something up when putting the implants in the brain tissue.” The man shrugged. “Something to do with the pain receptors. It drove Ivan crazy when they woke him up. His brain believed that every nerve in his nonexistent body was bursting with agony.” He chuckled. “It’s kinda funny. Without the boosted architecture in his brain, he probably would have shut down and died from the shock. ‘Course, if Ymarin hadn’t messed it up, there wouldn’t have been that pain response in the first place. Ironic, huh?”

“Not really. What of the others?”

He tossed up a hand. “Ymarin and Pierce were both dead, as were most of the soldiers. The ones who