Dust on the ground, the smell of smoke hanging in the air, the rubble that lay all around him. These were the first things Ying took in as he slowly regained consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes… as his vision swam back into focus, he began to see that he was in a pile of ashen rubble. He gingerly picked himself up and surveyed the environment. Around him there were piles and piles of concrete and broken glass and a strey fire here and there. He was just starting to question where he was and why when he remembered the portal, and the chained up creature, and…
"The teleporter!" He thought to himself, "It must have worked! I'm still alive after all."
He began checking himself for injuries. None to be found. Not a scratch on him remained after his trialing journey through his diabolical creation. As his brain began to collect itself and start firing on all cylinders again, he realized where he was. This must be his lab. This is where the home button was supposed to take him. He had built this home button as a modified version of his prototype 'blink' button that would have allowed someone to travel to a predetermined location. Only the prototype never worked. Then it hit him, and he gasped in realization.
His lab was near the center of the city. He had been working out of an apartment building for the last 2 years since no one would hire an underage scientist with issues. He needed to find out what happened after he left. He scrambled to find higher ground, climbing onto a nearby support beam that had now become a support stump. He was about 6-7 stories up as he surveyed the area. As he looked on at the city he once knew, his heart sank right down into his shoes.
Everything was destroyed. Buildings were reduced to dust. High rises had snapped in two. The air was filled with smog and soot. Tiny monsters littered the city streets, listening intently for any survivors to snuff out. The more gargantuan monsters lumbered about the nearby landscape.
This city was once a beautiful bustling civilization. It was a fairly large city centered on the west coast of the U.S, the beach to one side of the city and a massive expanse of forest to the other. Ying remembered how beautiful the city looked when the sun was going down. It looked like paradise came to life. He remembered his favorite stores, his favorite parks, his favorite people. All of it was destroyed by his poor decisions. He would never see Kadie again, nor any of his other friends. Ying would never admit this to Kadie while she was alive, but Kadie was Ying's closest friend. He didn't know what he would do without her, he didn't know how he could fix this without her to guide him and believe in him. A wave of painful nostalgia washed over him as he looked out upon the chaos. Tears formed in his eyes. He was about to start crying again when a low snarl sent chills down his spine.
He lurched his head around to see 3 of the tinier creatures slowly crawling towards them, their needle-filled mouth open and poised to strike. The creatures creeped along ever closer, moving slowly like a cat that was tracking its prey. He took a step back, only to feel nothing beneath his foot. He almost lost his balance, but he pulled himself together just in the nick of time and steadied himself. Just as he had gotten a good footing and was beginning to bring his attention back to the abominations before him, one of them lunged at him with a ghostly shriek.
It tackled Ying right off of his beam, sending both of them plummeting towards the street below. Yings heart sank and his fear reached a new height. There was nothing he could do here. You can't escape gravity itself. He screamed helplessly and he plunged toward the ground at lightning speed. He shut his eyes tightly and prepared for impact. He could hear the creature wailing right next to him. At that moment, he was angry at the beast. He should have been able to live to see tomorrow, but this dumb beast just had to kill both of them. He should still be up on that beam. He wished he was still up there, he wished he had a second chance. He deserved to reroll the dice at least once, after all the crap life had put him through.
Just as he was about to resign himself to his death for the second time in 24 hours, he felt himself stop falling. He was still. Not only that, his feet were touching something. He opened his eyes cautiously… he was in disbelief at what he saw. He saw 2 humanoid horrors sitting on a pile of rubble below him. He saw his destroyed lab, and he saw the exact spot where he woke up. No… surely this was impossible. He was back on top of the beam. His feet exactly where he remembered them. Maybe the falling was all in his head.
He turned and peered down at what he could've sworn was going to be his early grave. There on the ground was a crumpled up demon sitting in a pool of its own purple blood. That confirms it, Ying had somehow returned to the beam. Was it the home button? He searched his pockets… nothing to be found there. What could have possibly made this happen? The 2 remaining gremlins looked equally confused (as confused as one could look without facial expressions). They turned their heads to one side, puzzled.
Ying's mind quickly snapped back into focus after a few puzzling seconds. He wasn't about to waste this opportunity. He picked up a piece of rubble and carefully chucked it around a corner. The creatures scrambled after the noise leaving Ying alone with his thoughts.
"I need to get down." Ying thought to himself.
He peered out over the edge again trying to spot an area free of danger. He needed a place that was out of harm's way if he was to prepare himself for the coming struggles. He spotted a vacant rooftop on a building that was only slightly damaged. Perfect. But how would he get there? Ying was just thinking of how he was going to get down when his view suddenly changed. The rubble around him was gone, and there was no sign of any higher floors. He was on a flat rooftop with a helipad on it and a small door to his left. It happened again. How curious. He turned around and looked back at where he assumed his lab to be located. He spotted the exact place in which he used to be standing. The 2 wretches had returned from their wild pebble chase, and were now searching for him again.
"This building was over 4 blocks away…" He thought, "How did I-"
All at once the answer hit him like a semi-truck. Of course. That was the answer. He needed to be sure though, so he tried once more. He looked at the door and concentrated hard.
"I need to be in front of the door." He said with authority.
Boom. Ying appeared in front of the door. A wide smile crept across his face as he became certain of his theory. He didn't know how, but it was clear.
"I, Ying Chiba, the most accomplished scientist alive, Have somehow manifested the ability to teleport at will!" He cried with wonder.
This was incredible. This was beyond his wildest dreams. He looked at a half collapsed rooftop not far away and concentrated. He pictured himself on the rooftop, and tried to feel what it would be like to be there. Poof. There he was. He jumped up and down in excitement as he looked around quickly for somewhere else to teleport to. He came across what had once been a local brewery and focused himself once again. Abra cadabra, he was right outside the entrance.
"This is… this is!…. I don't know what this is! This is so far beyond what I expected!" He said as he blinked in and out of reality over and over. As he blinked for the 14th-15th time, he suddenly felt a wave of nausea come over him and fatigue overtake his body. He wobbled a bit, and then quickly realized he needed to find somewhere safe to hide before he got ripped apart. He collapsed in a nearby dumpster that had somehow survived the catastrophe.
"Ohhhh… that doesnt feel good…" Ying mumbled to himself.
His head was killing him. He put his hand to his forehead to check his temperature… he was burning up. This was not good. What could be the matter with him? His left arm had also begun to ache with a throbbing, chilling pain. He lifted his sleeve to find the source of the problem, and…
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!!" He shrieked, "WHAT THE FUCK!!"
His arm appeared to have a large, black, pulsing tumor. Black lines stretched out from the tumor like roots on a tree, covering his entire forearm and crawling all the way up to his shoulder. The tumor was large, around 2 inches horizontally and 3 and a half inches vertically, and it looked disgusting.
As Ying was panicking and scrambling about to find something to remove it with, his arm shot straight up in the air on its own accord. Ying tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge. He used his right arm to try to pull it back down, but his left arm freed itself from his grasp and struck him heavily in the chest. Ying felt the air rush out of him and he collapsed on the ground again. Ying suddenly felt a horrible sensation in his arm. The tumor was moving. It was slowly crawling its way up his arm. Ying quickly put two and two together.
"Whatever it's doing, I need to stop it." He thought to himself with certainty.
He looked around for anything to cut it out with. Time was running out. The tumor had made it to his shoulder. He first tore his shirt and made a tourniquet around his shoulder to prevent the tumor from moving any further for the time being. Then he began searching for a large sharp object. He was so fatigued it was almost impossible, but after a few minutes he found a piece of broken glass.
"I gotta get this thing out before-"
Ying's thought was interrupted by a chilling realization. The tourniquet had come loose. In his haste and exhaustion, he had forgotten to properly tie it. He quickly looked at his shoulder. The tumor was gone… He took off his shirt. It had to be somewhere. He looked everywhere. His legs, his torso, his-… chest. The tumor had rested itself on his chest. He aimed the glass at the tumor and readied himself for the blow. He didn't wanna die, but at this point he was gonna have to take that risk if he was gonna cure himself.
Suddenly, he felt a strange, calming sensation. He didn't need to remove the tumor. What harm was it really causing, anyway? It was just sitting there minding its own business after all. He should just leave it be and not risk harming himself along with it. He shouldn't be scared, in fact, he shouldn't be scared of any of the monsters. They were just doing their job, who was he to get in the way? Perhaps he should submit himself to them, and then-
Ying shook his head and slapped himself hard. What was he thinking? Those things were mindless monsters, and this tumor was clearly dangerous. He took a deep breath and tried to focus. It was beginning to affect his thoughts. Although part of him did have a point. The tumor was now in a very vital area. It would be incredibly risky to remove it. Even so, he decided that it was worth the risk. He needed to be the one in control, not some clump of silly putty. He raised his shard of glass high and prepared himself. He was scared, but this needed to happen. He began to bring the shard closer. His heart began to beat faster and he began to sweat.
"Oh god, oh god oh god this is gonna hurt. What if it goes wrong? I dont wanna die like this!"
He was terrified. His heart beat faster and faster as the glass got closer and closer, and then… he stopped. He couldn't do it. It was too risky, and quite frankly too nerve racking. Perhaps he could remove it later with finer tools or maybe freeze it out with liquid nitrogen, but for now he had to deal with it. He would just have to rationalize his way through those thoughts of submission. Although, they didn't seem to be happening anymore. His mind was clear. His heart rate was still high, but he could think clearly now. He looked down at the tumor. It was squirming and wriggling about… gross. He would figure it out some other time, today had been an exhausting one.
Ying got back in his dumpster and curled up under some trash. He was well beyond his normal exhaustion limit. Half of him hoped it was all a dream as he began to drift away. He looked at his reflection in his little knife of glass. He could hardly recognize himself after all that had happened. In fact… he couldn't recognize himself at all. He had completely changed.
The left half of his hair had taken on a ghostly white color, almost as if it was covered in snow. His face was covered in soot, and his eyes had changed from a bright red to a light green. If he looked closely, he could swear he could see something moving and swirling in his eye, like shifting sands. He was too tired to be disturbed by these changes. Everything was happening so quickly, he needed a break. He would deal with it in the morning. He put down his weapon and changed positions to get comfortable. He began mumbling to himself as he drifted off to sleep.
"I'll fix this Kadie… I'll survive this and I'll fix it… after all, surviving the apocalypse with teleportation should be easy…"