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It was just a catfight.
Subspace and Medkit had them all the time; Subspace would say something rude or Medkit would say something silly, and whatever response the other had to that would snowball into sneers and screams… and then the stunned, uncomfortable silence that came afterwards when they would come to their senses after hours of verbal abuse, working mindlessly on their research again, only this time a few more feet apart than before.
It was supposed to just be a catfight, something the both of them would get over that night and then start up again the next day. It was practically tradition at this point for the scientists.
But… it… it got bad when Subspace got physical.
It wasn't like they hadn't before. Subspace had more than once threatened them with their tripmine crystals: tiny and feeble things with the power of a miniature nuclear explosion stuffed inside of them, and yet Medkit never thought they would have the guts to do it. Subspace was reckless, stupid, and violent, but not towards citizens of Blackrock. Not towards their fellow loyal man.
So when Medkit found themselves being pinned to the tile of their shared laboratory, claws digging into their forehead and a tripmine planted less than an inch away from their open eye, they were… terrified. Confused. And especially understanding that today would be their last day under the KORBLOX Administration… for one reason or another. Like a deer caught in headlights, Medkit was silent and still, unable to pry his eyes away from the bomb that would instantly kill him if he did so much as blink.
How had it started again?
Subspace had hurt themself again doing a reckless experiment, burning her hand in the fire of her own tripmines, and Medkit was healing them again. A roll of bandages came to mind; Medkit so carefully wrapping them around their fingertips, because no matter how much they hated them, they still had a duty to protect and heal the people of their kingdom. And when Medkit tugged one of their healing crystals from between their horns to hover it above the wound, Subspace kicked them away.
It was something about how much greater Medkit thought they were. How much more their gear helped the people. Jealousy spiraled in Subspace's tone as their bandages, not fully applied just yet, began to unfurl on their gnarled forearm. Medkit was used to these rants as well: a lot of projection and rage that came from how much more the kingdom cared for his studies than Subspace's, from how many posters they got of them, from how many banners were strewn about in their horn's color.
"THE HEALER OF BLACKROCK", that's what they called them. And yet Subspace got none of that, even when they worked harder and harder and harder everyday, creating bigger and better and more optimized and more useful Biografts, honing the power of the crystals to do the most damage in as little time as possible… they were the creator of all the military, and yet, they got no faces on posters or colors on banners.
No… that honor was given to that famed Moneybags.
To Medkit, it made sense. The propaganda-ridden kingdom was, of course, going to mainly praise the leader of the place. As well as this, Medkit, with all their cool confidence, hated the attention they got anyway. He tried to tell Subspace he wouldn't like it if he had it. But he never listened.
And then… the jealousy grew and grew… and a hand met their chest to push them down… and now…
Medkit picked up the pink crystal hovering just in front of her face with her gloved hand, and in a moment of fear and clarity clashing, chucked the now buzzing item in Subspace's direction.
As it flew through the air, everything felt like it was in slow motion. Time stopped for the two Inphernals, the two Blackrock scientists, when the fighting finally came to its climax. Subspace barely had the time for even their eyes to widen before the crystal drilled straight into their skull, imploding instantly and making the room shake with the effort.
Glass vials came barrelling to the floor; the ceiling light shattered in shades of magenta; cabinets lost the doors on their hinges; tiles dug themselves up from the laboratory floor. When the smog of the explosion cleared, only seconds after it had occurred, Subspace's eye was gouged from its socket and most of his face had turned a sickeningly striking shade of fuschia, so bright it matched his swooping horns to a T. Blood streamed down their face, and then, Subspace was unresponsive, their head knocked up against one of the broken cabinets and lulled to the side in a way that could only be described as corpselike.
Medkit wasted no time. He took the opportunity to grab their gear and start packing everything they needed to leave Blackrock. They never had much in terms of possessions, what with how overbearing the leaders of the kingdom and the overarching KORBLOX Administration could be at times. A half-finished roll of bandages frowned at Medkit from where it lay dismissed on the floor, yet Medkit didn't even think about using it on their dying adversary, instead stuffing it inside of the case and clicking it closed as hyperventilated gasps wriggled out through their teeth.
How did this catfight get so bad? How did they let this happen? When the Blackrockians find Subspace, they'll pin the blame on Medkit, and the so-called victim will sure encourage it—too lost in their own pride and loyalty to ever see their side of things, like always.
That is… if Subspace even makes it out alive.
Medkit will have plenty of time to consider their life's choices when they're out of the kingdom, and safe… somewhere. They pulled their gear from the ground and slammed the door to the hallway open, bracing their legs for a lot of running—before they feel a tug on their ankle.
Subspace had crawled over from where they laid before, heaving and unintelligably cursing, digging their claws into Medkit's calf and slicing it right open. Medkit sucked in an immediate breath, silencing their own yelp, knowing that one wrong move here could bring their untimely death rather by the hand of Subspace, or by the blade of a Biograft. He swung his leg away from Subspace, then brought it right back like a pendulum; hitting a bullseye into the spot that was starting to swell and pulse into a massive tumor on their face.
Subspace wasn't done, though. Even when they reeled back, they kept their nails deep in Medkit's leg, dragging them down towards the floor with shocking adrenaline-powered strength. With a clatter, their gear slammed to the floor alongside the thuds of their bloodied bodies, and half of their tools came pouring out; Subspace's mouth dropped open in a war cry, using their good arm to tear into Medkit's face, holding them down with the weaker of the limbs… putting the term 'an eye for an eye' to good use.
Medkit wailed and wavered as they felt the nerves in their eye get torn out, head spinning as they began to fade in and out of consciousness; but a shock of adrenaline that came from Subspace beginning to drag their claws down to their mouth woke them right back up, and, acting quickly and perhaps recklessly, Medkit grabbed another one of Subspace's tripmines right out from where it remained between their horns, and shoved it into their mouth, using two claws to force it deep inside.
A gutwrenching scream instantly tore its way from Subspace's throat as another explosion rang out, bubbles of blood fizzing out from their lips as the poison from the tripmine embedded itself in the lining of her mouth. Medkit forced herself onto her feet, grabbed her gear, and darted out of the room, pushing the door not enough to close it; just enough to leave it ajar as Subspace's agonizing cries turned to gargles barely heard over the ringing still coming from the tripped crystal, slowly becoming muffled from the walls between them as Medkit slipped down one staircase, two staircases, three, limping pathetically…
…and slowly, the noise became nothing but white noise in the distance when Medkit trudged through the snowy landscapes of Blackrock and swerved through the birch trees on the outskirts. The cold was piercing and numbing their leg's wound, but the adrenaline was starting to wear off and make Medkit's entire body shake with the effort of keeping conscious through the agony of their optic injury… but the scientist only allowed themselves to collapse when they reached a dingy outskirts covered in gray tones of rain and concrete.
And, back where a trail of deep red blood, now lost in the snowstorm, led, an Inphernal with dark blue horns toting a large laser gun opened the door to a wrecked laboratory, seeing a researcher with one remaining glazed over eye holding tightly onto a roll of discarded bandages.