Chapter 529

The situation was dire. Owen kept pushing him down, pinning him against the floor with great strength. The crab-things stood in a loose circle around them, their weapons trained on him, the barrels glowing brighter and brighter as the energy inside continued to build. And the Grafter kept working on overdriving his hack nonstop. Once it succeeded, it would regain full control over its brain chip.

He once again attempted to shove Owen off him, straining every fiber in his body, but hardly accomplished anything at all. If anything, his counterpart only pressed down even harder. Owen’s strength came from pure brute force, and there was simply no way Jake could overpower him in a contest of raw power. He’d learned that lesson a long time ago.

His own strength came from the army of monsters at his disposal. However, the crab-things had already dealt with his blastfiends and wasps, leaving their broken remains scattered across the bridge, and he didn’t have another tumor in his inventory to create another Transfer Maw. At the moment, his greatest advantage had been reduced to almost nothing.

He had already ordered some of the crawlers clinging to the organic hull of the bio-ship to slip inside and make their way to the bridge. Whether they would be able to come to his aid before it was too late, however, was anybody’s guess. The creatures would have to fight their way through the vessel’s defenders first, and every passing second felt impossibly long.

Jake once again sprouted numerous tendrils from his body, the writhing appendages lashing outward and wrapping themselves tightly around Owen. Exerting every ounce of his strength, he tried to topple his counterpart but barely managed to move him an inch. Owen stood his ground like an immovable monolith. Then, he used his claws and scythe-blades to tear through the tendrils, shredding them to pieces in no time flat.

Before Jake could make another attempt, Owen’s fist slammed into the side of his head with crushing force. The blow sent a jolt through his skull and stunned him for a moment. Just as his senses began to recover, another punch crashed into him, and everything went dark for an instant.

His vision flickered back just as a third strike landed. Jake knew from experience that those weren’t ordinary punches. His counterpart possessed some kind of ability that allowed him to daze his opponents with every solid hit, momentarily knocking them out of commission and leaving them vulnerable before they could regain their bearings.

Jake attempted to rise again, but another punch came immediately, smashing into his head, causing it to strike the floor with a sickening crunch. After that, he lay still for a second, his vision swimming as he fought to gather his senses. He could tell it was the Grafter that had ordered Owen to start pummeling him. He knew Owen was obeying the obnoxious larva-like creature only because of the chip implanted deep inside his head.

Jake tried to hack into Owen’s brain chip, but he immediately realized he wouldn’t be able to work on two brain chips at the same time. Maintaining control over the Grafter’s chip was already taking too much effort, demanding nearly all of his concentration.

He could tell that hacking into Owen’s chip would require him to loosen his mental grip on the Grafter’s, even if only for a moment. And if he did that, the larva-like creature would undoubtedly seize the opportunity, reclaiming control before Jake could stop it.

It was impossible to tell whether he could manage both brain chips at once without losing control over the Grafter’s, and gambling on that uncertainty could easily prove fatal.

Jake didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know if he should risk losing control over the Grafter’s chip. If he successfully hacked into Owen’s, his friend would regain control of his own body. Meanwhile, the Grafter would reclaim its abilities, putting Jake right back where he had started without truly accomplishing anything. He would trade one problem for another.

But at the same time, he couldn’t just lie there while Owen kept raining crushing punches down on his head. Every impact rattled his skull and chipped away at his ability to think clearly. He had to do something, but for the life of him, he couldn’t think of the best way out of his predicament.

Ultimately, as another blow jarred his head and sent his vision blurring again, he decided he didn’t really have much choice. He had to attempt to hack into Owen’s brain chip while doing everything in his power not to loosen his mental grip on the Grafter’s. It would require him to exercise an enormous amount of concentration to balance both mental connections at once without allowing either to slip. He had no idea whether he would succeed or not.

However, before he could begin working on Owen’s chip, his counterpart threw another punch, the massive fist hurtling toward his skull with great power. He expected Owen’s fist to connect with his head in the next instant, but to his great surprise, it never happened.

Instead, the massive fist froze midway through its arc, hovering only inches from his head. For a brief moment, Jake wasn’t sure what had just happened. Then he sensed the Grafter sending an intense mental command to Owen, urging him to finish the strike. The command carried a desperate edge, more forceful than before. Yet the punch still didn’t land.

Then Jake realized something else. The crushing pressure pinning him to the floor had just lessened ever so slightly. Jake immediately seized the opportunity. Using every ounce of his might, he shoved Owen off him, toppling his counterpart to the side before leaping to his feet. He quickly turned toward Owen just as he rose as well.

Owen stood a couple of feet away, staring back at him. He didn’t move a muscle. Jake knew what it meant. His friend was fighting against the brain chip’s commands, struggling to wrest back control of his own body through sheer force of will. Though Owen stood perfectly still, Jake could tell an intense mental battle was raging inside his head. The Grafter continued bombarding him with commands, but Owen was doing his best to resist them.

Then, suddenly, his friend dropped to his knees, both hands clutching the sides of his head. Whatever was happening inside Owen’s mind wasn’t good. Jake could feel the Grafter pouring an overwhelming surge of mental power into forcing Owen to obey.

A rage more intense than anything he had ever experienced as a mutant surged through him. He wheeled toward the huge larva-like creature without another thought. He bolted straight toward his opponent just as the crab-things opened fire on him once more.

Energy bolts crackled through the air, some sizzling past him so close he could feel the heat of them, while others slammed into his body with brutal force, staggering him mid-run. Ignoring the burning impacts and the jolts that threatened to knock him off course, he kept moving.

As he closed the distance, he pushed off the ground and launched himself upward and forward in a single leap. He landed atop the huge larva-like creature, clinging to its sagging body. Morphing one hand into razor-sharp claws, he tore into the Grafter’s flesh, ripping through it with ease. The creature immediately emitted a high-pitched screech of rage and agony as it thrashed violently in response.

Jake slashed at the monster beneath him again and again, and there was nothing it could do to protect itself. Without its telekinetic abilities, it could do absolutely nothing to defend itself. His claws tore through its flesh with brutal ease, shredding it to pieces.

The hover-chair the Grafter was merged with began to pull away from the bio-ship’s control console. The fleshy tubes linking it to the ship stretched taut, and for the briefest of moments, the Grafter stopped moving. Then, in the next instant, the tubes detached from its body with wet, sickening pops, snapping free one after another.

The captain of the bio-ship lurched chaotically around the bridge, its massive form thrashing, howling the entire time in a mixture of rage and agony, but it could do nothing to stop Jake’s assault. He kept ripping through its body, tearing the flesh apart. The crab-monsters continued firing their energy weapons in frantic bursts, and some of the bolts struck their master instead, punching into its bulk, adding to its suffering.

About a minute later, it was over. The Grafter died, and with its mental control finally severed, the hover-chair dropped to the floor with a heavy, dull thud that echoed across the bridge. The impact sent a faint tremor through the surrounding floor. What remained of the huge larva-like creature was still attached to the hover-chair, twitching violently, while most of its body lay scattered all over the bridge in torn, fleshy pieces.

The crab-things were still firing at him, bolts of energy streaking through the air. However, Jake chose to ignore the remaining monsters for the moment. He spun toward Owen, expecting him to be back in full control of his body now that the Grafter was gone. Instead, he saw something else entirely.

His friend was lying on his side a short distance away, his arms still wrapped tightly around his head while his entire body trembled violently. Whatever had been happening inside his mind had not ended with the Grafter’s death.

Even though the Grafter was dead, the brain chip in Owen’s head was still active, continuing to execute something terrible within him, the last command from the Grafter. Things looked bad, really bad. Jake could tell that his friend was in terrible pain. He was dying, and every second that passed left him with less time.