Nemesis

Chapter Twenty-Nine

A BRILLIANT LIGHT, WHITE BUT SHADED with electrically searing orange and blue, burst from the end of the laser cannon in a beam of concentrated fury. Arcs of heat and light stormed over the body of the cannon like miniature bolts of lightning, and the laser found the once-Nemesis's writhing, pulsating body and began to eat. The creature that had once been the pride of Um-brella's development section whined and thrashed, flailing its multiple limbs in a frenzy of agonized confusion. The tight beam of light bored into its flesh, as-relentless as it had proved, melting layers of tissue and soldering harder materials  - bone and car-tilage and pliable metal  - into fused and useless lumps. The creature began to smolder, then smoke, and as the brain stem inside of it withered and cooked, the Nemesis ceased to exist, its program wiped, its improbable heart finally bursting silently, deep in-side. A few seconds later, the cannon overheated and shut itself down.