Beyond The Crimson Gate-Chapter 41: Saving Kale

It had barely been an hour since he had confronted Miss Cayenne when he had heard about Kale’s return.

Axel broke his usually calm demeanor as he ran down the hallways until he landed in the hospital wing.

A stretcher rushed a body into the emergency room. Axel tried to follow but was stopped by some of the staff.

"The doctors need time to work alone."

He tried protesting but to no avail. Left with no other choice, he went to Miss Cayenne’s office.

Without courtesy, he opened the doors and heard the ending part of her conversation.

"... when he’s conscious we’ll question him." Her eyes gave Axel a once-over before she ended the call and looked at him.

"Aren’t we crossing some lines, Romero? Not knocking? It seemed that this matter with Vincoff has really affected you." Her eyes squinted.

She stood and walked to the door, "Well won’t you follow me? I assume that’s why you came."

Axel followed closely behind with a slightly slower pace.

He couldn’t walk ahead of her irrespective of how he felt that she was intentionally wasting time.

"Romero. I thought it would take the destruction of humanity as a whole to incur such a reaction from you." A light chuckle left her.

She stopped walking and turned her head slightly to look him in the eye, a smirk on her lips, "Turns out to do so, we only need one human. Interesting."

She resumed her walking.

Axel’s picked up on what she was implying. The military now knew his weakness was Kale.

A weakness meant they had leverage over him.

’Shit!’ Axel muttered in his mind before letting out a sigh, "Can you blame me though?"

His words made Miss Cayenne pause for a moment.

"He’s the only link I have to normalcy. If I lose him, who knows what would become of me. I might lose my morals and ethics." Axel’s words seemed plain but the recipient knew their meaning.

’Did he just counter-threaten me? Saying that if anything does happen to Vincoff, he’ll become a threat?’ A faint scowl crinkled her face.

"Oh... that’s too bad. I guess we need him then." She actually responded.

The two arrived in front of the emergency room and the staff present moved to the side to grant them access.

Axel let out a furtive gasp as he saw the state that Kale was in.

His best friend of six years was attached to easily over five tubes, some pumping blood in and others extracting a black substance.

Kale’s body was completely battered; he was even missing an arm, and to make matters worse, he was covered in scales with tentacles growing out from his missing arm.

One of the doctors approached Miss Cayenne and lifted his hand to gain her attention.

"There’s something you need to see." He led her to a separate room and she followed behind.

Inside was a glass box atop a table. A pale white lizard was running around in it.

"We found this on top of the patient when we found it. The creature doesn’t seem particularly hostile even though it’s from Dimension Zero."

Miss Cayenne tilted her head and looked in Kale’s direction.

"We’ll let him explain when he wakes up. You did manage to get his heart beating again, I assume." Her tone was more factual than questioning.

The doctor shifted his nose mask, "Yes but that’s only half of the problem. You saw his skin, riddled with scales and tentacles."

"We took off his badly damaged suit and found a raw beast crystal inside. He is turning into a beast."

Miss Cayenne listened carefully before walking out to meet Axel.

She stopped just a few feet from him and was about to speak when Axel beat her to it, "He is turning into a beast."

The stoic woman didn’t bother feigning surprise and just kept silent.

Axel looked at the doctor, "Isn’t there a way to save him?" His tone was direct.

The doctor wanted to reprimand him for his tone but didn’t. Axel was a guest of Miss Cayenne.

"The only reason he hasn’t gone full beast yet is because of the laws of our universe suppressing the process." The doctor started his explanation.

"The only way to stop it, or at least slow it down to a crawl, is to put him through a beast infusion. With the essence of the beast..."

"The laws won’t be as effective because he’s part beast." Axel completed it on his own behalf.

His eyes went to Miss Cayenne, ready to call in the favor she owed him, when he remembered her words from earlier.

Axel sighed and reached for the communication chip in his pocket and pulled it out.

Miss Cayenne’s eyes lingered on it with a suppressed curiosity, "May I ask from where exactly you got that? Or better yet, whom?"

He didn’t respond and instead tapped the only button on its surface.

The chip disintegrated into fine dust and nothing happened. Axel was about to curse himself when a pressure landed in the room.

Space rippled and Mr. Stone appeared mid-air.

’The chip belonged to Greg.’ Finally, the dots connected.

Miss Cayenne tilted her head slightly, ’That explains how he knew that Greg could read minds and why the latter regarded him.’

Her mind immediately referenced the first interaction she ever saw them have.

"Inform me the next time you give another recruit something as valuable as a communication chip." She spoke through gritted teeth.

Mr. Stone scratched his neck a bit, "You are really observant." He murmured, replying to her thoughts.

The chip was something she wasn’t aware of, and the lack of data was what she despised the most.

The two didn’t need to speak out when Axel knew that Mr. Stone could read minds.

Mr. Stone looked at her before turning back to Axel, "Hmm. Are you sure that’s what you want?"

Silence.

"Okay, if you say so."

He turned to look at the doctor and nurses, "Give the boy a beast infusion."