![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coronaviridaeMarvelous scene on M3 today, to introduce ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
duskpaw's new character, Dr. Nathan Xiang. He's going to be a very fine addition to M3's tradition of evil doctors.
Title: Into Hell
Date: 08 February 2003
Players: Abernathy (logging), Bridgit Cascio, Gale Sorcerer, Dr. Nathan Xiang, Midi, Terra Trunk
Summary: When Dr. Nathan Xiang begins taunting Interpol over radio over their 'oversight' of his ruined lab, the UN Enforcement Division and RDI spring into action. Unfortunately, they get much more than they bargained for...
UN HQ - Applied Sciences
Gate's Lab [GL]
[S]outh leads to UN HQ - The Vault.
----Abernathy----
There is something unfinished about this man, a sort of loose ranginess that most young humans evince at some point in their lives. On many people, it lends an air of awkwardness, but he wears the look like a set of well-fitting clothes: comfortable and almost elegant. This grace of carriage nearly serves to erase the pronounced limp he walks with, minimizing it to a peripheral flaw.
His thin build--muscular, but still distinctly ectomorphic--serves only as an accent to the deceptive appearance of a kid in his teens. Combined with the lean lines of his face, it creates an overall appearance of effeminateness, an appearance helped by the black makeup--lipstick, eyeshadow--he wears.
An albino, his coloration is stereotypical of that disorder: Skin and hair both white and nearly translucent in the proper light, eyes a pale, unnatural pink. His attire--primarily black, from collared shirt and greatcoat, to slacks and steel-toed boots--seems a calculated effect, rendering him positively spectral. A single lapel pin, the blue-and-silver emblem of the United Nations, breaks up the unrelieved darkness of the outfit.
The details of his appearance lend him a roguish mien, from the gel-spiked hair to the small silver ring in his pierced left ear. A pair of round-framed sunglasses--more functional than affectation, given his disorder--are perched on his nose, hiding his eyes and lending him an enigmatic touch appropriate to his position.
----Director General of Interpol----
Dr. Nathan Xiang arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Dr. Nathan Xiang has arrived.
Dr. Nathan Xiang
Dr. Nathan Xiang is a man in his mid 30's, early 40's. He's of Chinese descent, and stands about five foot five. Generally dressed in a labcoat that starts out clean, and ends up more than a little stained by the end of the day. Dark brown/black hair cut short fails to cover up the cables and conduits leading into sockets set into his skull. The cables lead down into his shoulders and spine. A few other cybernetic 'additions' give odd lumps to his back and upper arms. Otherwise he's mostly wiry. He wears a pair of glasses that obscure his eyes and cover the upper part of his face.
Terra Trunk arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Terra Trunk has arrived.
Terra Trunk
Terra Trunk looks fairly different today. Rather than a walking waste paper basket, his body is surprisingly round and spherical, and although it still has the slimy, rough appearance of rotting wood it's not tubular. His eyes still stare out from holes in the wood, with Vile-style darkness effect, and he's still wearing clogs... and a pale orange Metool Helmet, complete with cross and stripe round the back. You know, from a distance, he kind of looks like a big, fat Met, as a matter of fact.
Gale Sorcerer arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Gale Sorcerer has arrived.
Gale Sorcerer
Gale Sorcerer could look like a normal young human, if it wouldn't be by two obvious facts: his outfit makes him look like an ancient magician, and you can see and feel wind flowing around him. Behind the dark hair that covers some of his face, and also falls down his back, Gale Sorcerer usually has a calm look. On his head, he carries a big grey wizard hat that could keep his face in shadows whenever he'd want.
A big dark green cloak that reaches his feet covers most of his body when wind isn't moving it. The cloak is held by two golden shoulder-straps united by a golden chain. Under it, you can hardly see his wide dark blue outfit and brown boots.In his hands he wears a pair of brown gloves, where some kind of resorts can be seen, revealing he isn't a human.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] There is a crackle of static across the radio. "So. You still haven't noticed, have you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Eh, what?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, warily: "Noticed what, praytell?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The unidentified speaker continues, "When was the last time you heard anything from Vault lab 23? Don't you think it a bit... strange? No reports. No requests for equipment or supplies. Tch. I'm rather... disappointed."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "oh, no! not the damn cockroaches again!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy can be heard swearing quietly in the background.
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "Commander Sorcerer. Get Private Trunk and meet me in the applied sciences area of the Vault. /Now/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Well, you never hear much of a request from Vault lab 63 either, but that's mine and I do most of my equipment and supply shopping myself, so you could assume..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The speaker is silent for a moment. "No. Not the cockroaches. Tch. You didn't even wonder why no-one has seen or heard from my lab assistants, either. So sloppy. Of course, I did take certain steps..."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "now? sigh, oh, well, okay..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Something up, Mr. Abernathy? Hmmm... do I know you, mysterious sir?"
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "[frostily] That's an order, commander. I don't care if it 'inconveniences' you."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "yes, yes, no problem. I'm already in there right now anyway..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice replies, "No. I don't think you do. I took steps in that regard. Most of the people who know who I am... well, you'll see. I'm waiting." The signal breaks apart into static again, and then cuts out.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, antic: "Oh, quite possibly, private. Quite possibly."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Most unusual. You hang on, I'm coming down there myself..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "this sounds like either a joke or a bad horror movie"
*rapparapparapparappa*
The sound of what appears to be a midget in clogs skipping down a metal hall can be heard from outside, as the UN's most accomplished eccentric slab of rotting wood curiously makes his way down to the 23rd lab. He's wearing a Met hat that fits him pretty well, too. Must be something to do with Gale's 'horror movie' comment... well, never hurts to take precautions...
The clatter of several booted feet on concrete can be heard from the 'main' section of the vault, presaging the arrival of several riot-armored UNED guards. It looks like someone /had/ actually noticed the lack of response from Lab 23, and decided to think of the radio transmissions as a little more serious than someone trying to play a practical joke.
You could never be too cautious, after all.
The doors to Vault 23 are currently silent, immobile and unresponsive. The keypad next to the door is dark, apparently without power. All of the activity seems to affect these unmoving monoliths not a whit, as they remain silent, and immobile.
Walking annoyed towards the entrance doors of the UN Applied Sciences, the shape of the young RDI director can be seen going through the inside of that very same part of the building, while putting a CD-ROM back into its case and into his pocket. Grumbling a bit, Gale Sorcerer adjusts his wizard hat and opens the door, awaiting both his boss, Dr. Trunk, and anything else that's coming. "It's always the same, hmpf. I take some time in Applied Sciences to work on some holograms, and then they need me for something. Geez..."
"Well, Gale, it's a moth if it's an egg on a leaf, it seems," noted Terra Trunk, staring up at the newly arrived group of armed guards. "A little spooky, don't you think? But surely this is a little over the top, perhaps?"
The doors to the Lab continue to just... well, be doors. It's amazing, really.
Right on the clogged heels of Terra Trunk, the guards arrive at the door to Lab 23. Their commander frowns, under his riot helmet, as he notes the dead keypad. "Looks like we're going to have to force the door, boys," he mutters, gruffly. "Somebody get the plasma cutter up here!" Pausing, he glances over at the two scientists ... and smirks. "Whatever it is, it ain't funny. Don't get in the way, you two."
Over the door, a tiny little red light flickers to life. If anyone happens to glance that direction, they might noticed the monitor camera has come to life. Theoretically, this allows the people in the lab to check and see who's outside, and open the doors for them.
"Trunk, why have you put on that metool..." Gale Sorcerer points at the bioroid's would-be head, stopping right when the guards arrive and start trying to open the doors. "Uh, nevermind..." He then stares at his watch, then at the guards again. "Fortunately I was on the computers of the entrance of Applied Sciences, it could have taken me a while to come in here. So, I presume tha-" The eyes of the mage blink for a moment before going all big and giving Trunk a worried look. "What is that... oh, right, the monitor camera...."- Gale scratches his hat a bit-"This place gives me the creeps, it almost looks like one of those modern horror movies. Well, how can we open this?"
"Apparently, they're hauling in some sort of plasma cutter," replied Terra Trunk matter-of-factly. He looks up at the camera and does his best to just look gleefully at it, since he can't smile or wave or anything. "Modern horror films? Can't say I can relate, sadly. More a fan of the theatre, myself... In any case, we'd better stand back if they intend to get rough."
The guards, being guards, and not specifically trained on modern horror movies, do not immediately note the security light. This is likely because they're ignoring the scientists now, in the interest of getting the plasma cutter set up to use on the doors. One enterprising soldier -- attempting to be funny -- moves forward to knock on one of the door panels. "Yo! Open up in there!"
A couple of nervous snickers arise from the detail. The sergeant frowns. "Don't be a dumbass, Smitt. Get back here and help with the cutter," he barks, compelling instant obedience.
Horror movie? More like Aliens.
Poor Smitt. He knocked on the doors. In response to the vibrations, the nano-mites that had been seeded in the door respond with rather surprising alacrity. Wires erupt out of the 'dead' keypad, blindly seeking the source of the vibrations. Curling and twisting together into tentacles of mechanical origin, they lash out, seeking to burrow into flesh or machine in their path.
Of course, the nanites only have stored power for a few seconds of activity... but is that too long for Smitt?
"By thunder, watch it!" shouted Terra Trunk, and his Methat flips off as a large, purple mushroom is spat from his trunk, in an attempt to whack the sudden attack of nano-tentacles.
"It looks to me as if we're getting ourselves into a whole lot more than we bargained for, chaps! Look sharp and keep on your toes, we might be heading for trouble!"
"Not that I'm a fan of those, of course."-replies Gale to Trunk while he stands back to let the guards work-"Just that it's too typical: Thought-to-be-abandoned machinery that begins working, dark places where you can't get any help from, all the NPCs dying... oops.." The mage adjusts his hat again. Now all the thoughts about Raccoon City are coming back to his mind. And it took him all that time to try to forget those, sigh... "Anyway, let's let them work for now. They don't seem like they are enjoying our presence here too much... I wonder who- ARgh!" Screaming frenetically and jumping backwards at the sight regarding tentacles, plain, and NPCK attempt. "We need heavy machinery! I'm not going to die here!!!" Well, but they never get heavy machinery in horror movies. Or do they?
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "I love New York. They have the bessst food."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Some nameless UNED sergeant swears loudly. "F***! SHOOT THAT THING!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "with what? with wind? *sarcasm*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... do I even WANNA know what the flying **** is goin' on?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "some #%$@ security device activated and attacked a guard here!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Can't find ratsss bigger anywhere elssse."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio sighs. "You guys're /so/ lucky I'm comin' back from San An t'night..." [ch-CHAK]
It might just be.
A scream erupts from the unfortunate Smitt, the horrified soldier backpedaling away from the mechanical tentacle that's reaching for him. The scream turns into a liquid burble as the tentacle, not quite diverted from its aims by Trunk's attempted intervention, burrows into his chest. He slumps, a horrified look blossoming on his face as the nano-mites finally die.
The sergeant swears into his radio, whipping out his sidearm and shooting at the dying tentacle in a crazed, spinal reflex. The rest of the guards look horrified. One makes an abortive start toward Smitt, now lying in a puddle of his own blood and gurgling on the floor, but draws up short at the sight of the still-thrashing tentacle. Turning, he points at Trunk. "Y ... you! R-reploid! You m-move him! It can't kill you!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Please. Do you think anyone truly want to hear about your eating habits?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "I....do..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Let me possse you another quessstion... Do I care if anyone wantsss to know about my eating habitsss?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Now, where's th' fire? I gotcher fire extinguisher right here... [sound of a gun being cocked]"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Why do YOU want to know, human?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, unamused: "... Shall I scramble a squad with bigger weapons?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "'Cuz...bored..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "And wanna piss off Doppler"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "With all due respect, Miss Cascio, I think you should stay put. We're under attack from quite a potent metal tentacle that's badly wounded one man within a few seconds of it appearance!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "the vault! in applied sciences, lab 23. Bring someone experienced and well equipped before someone gets killed!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "They have big roboratsss. I caught a normal rat yesssterday, and Plant wasss going to cook it up for Crash Man to eat. Unfortunately, Roll'sss cat ssstole it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I ain't afraid of some metal reject. I'll be there in a couple minutes with a squad."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Ah, the esteemed musician. *sarcasm* And what do I the owe the honor of your attention?"
Bridgit Cascio arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Bridgit Cascio has arrived.
Bridgit Cascio
Nearing 45 years of age, this particular female human stands a proud if not short 5'5". The diminutive woman shows her age gracefully, gray mingled in the coppery hair at the temples and bangs. Small wrinkles at the sides of her emerald green eyes, which flash like fire when the mood takes her, reflect years of squinting into too many searchlights and working too many late patrols. Freckles dot across her cheekbones and nose, which carries a pair of silver wire-rimmed glasses on them easily. Her hands are never still, and tend to have something in them -- coffee cup, usually, or a mechanic's wrench. Her face is set in a determined near-scowl which appears to be permanent.
Wearing the everyday uniform is much less a trial for Bridgit, and she carries it well. The jacket is two-toned: a vest-like component of orange-tan edged in black, matched up with slate blue sleeves. The neckline of the jacket is cut away substantially, and underneath she wears a light cyan-coloured shirt and a black tie. The shirt's collar tabs carry small silver rectangles to demarcate her rank, with larger ones on either side of her jacket's lapels.
The jacket is cinched shut around waist with a wide brown leather belt, the silver buckle engraved with the UN insignia. Her pants are the same slate blue as her jacket sleeves, and neatly creased down the centre, brushing the tops of her highly polished black boots. Neat as a pin, and everything in order: this is Bridgit Cascio to the letter.
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "That thieving Tango! *a pause* What?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy mutters something about the squad not being teenage girls in fukus.
Terra Trunk pauses to consider this for a second. "Hrrrmm... you know something, you're probably right, actually. Let's see if I can't gum that blighter up, first though!"
Terra Trunk's hat pirouettes as he shoots another mushroom, and this one explodes into a splatter of spores and goo to try and coat the tentacle at its base. Terra Trunk scatters some seeds around Smitt, which quickly knit together into some sort of nanite stretcher, made of interknitted vines that start to wriggle away with its injured passenger to safety.
The tiny screen above the keypad flickers to life. There's nothing on it at first, but then eight symbols appear in an octagonal pattern - the eight triagrams of the I-Ching. In the middle of this appears the Ying-Yang. And the voice which you heard earlier comes out of the speakers.
"I suppose I should have mentioned. A few of the experiments are running... loose. You might want to be careful while trying to get in. As for the one on the floor... he's dead. The nanites are coded to break down any organic flesh they encounter, drawing on body heat for energy. I wouldn't touch him if your organic. They are quite contagious."
Even as he speaks, Smitt's flesh shrivels, cracks, and reddish grey liquid seeps out of his orifices and the cracks in his skin.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio OOCs, "I almost made a hentai crack, you know."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Yesss, I think it would have been entertaining to sssee Crash eat fried rat."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "I understand roast rat is becoming a delicacy in central Africa. Is there any truth to that?"
Frequency c is now gagged.
"Holy SHIT! SERGEANT!" the guard nearest Smitt wails, scrambling away from the liquifying soldier. The rest of the unit, alerted by the yell, turns to glance at Smitt -- and then begin the mass stampede AWAY, especially as the 'quite contagious' bit from the speaker registers.
The sergeant, ever prosaic, takes one look at his dying man. He listens for a moment to the voice over the keypad. Then he unholsters his plasma rifle, turns it up to 'full yield', and shoots the unfortunate Smitt. Set phasers to 'deep fry'; goodbye, nanites. "All right, you mewling milksops," he growls. "This is war."
The sounds of heavy footsteps outside barely make their way through the thick blast doors, and the gaggle of voices from outside only quiet down when one very strident bark for order rides over the din. Bridgit, freshly back from her stint in San Angeles overseeing the rebuilding of the northern outskirts, has firmly taken control of a small squad of heavily armed SWAT troopers. They're slightly more beefed up than the usual SWAT teams, made up of human and Reploid alike. There is, however, only ten - and Bridgit herself, who is currently chambering up her .45 Brigadier pistol. Einstein stands at her side, snarling and growling at the door ferally.
"Wait," she mutters, holding up her hand at the silent soldiers. "If Einstein's actin' funky, there's bad *(&@ goin' down in there. See if there's another way in," she orders two of the soldiers before she stares at the door, frowning, and grumbling into her radio.
"What a day to be a Bioroid, eh? Good thing there's more life in a recently peeled banana than in this trunk," grumbled Terra Trunk, hopping in the air. He's pretty glad he brought that hat along now, all thing considered. He grumbles as he hears the sound of activity outside... "Oh, no, if that's Miss Cascio..."
"Oh, gross!!" Gale Sorcerer covers his eyes as Smith's body starts collapsing, becoming a nasty and not-too-pleasant-to-see-body, right after the voice speaks again. Still without looking, the mage begins speaking in his radio. "Someone, we need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..." Gale continues watching the sergeant and the rest of the guards, while he tries to speak. "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!" He than grabs Trunk by the arm. "We should get the hell away from here! And you should too!"-he yells at the sergeant. It's then when he turns to see Bridgit in the other side. Too late to run now.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I'm outside the labs. Now. Someone tell me in under a hundred words what the *(&@ is goin' on in there. -Now-."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Uh?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "We need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "The tentacle that attacked private Smitt contained nanites that ultra-necrotised his body."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Tentacle?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Tentacle."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey transmits, "Yes sir, Commander Sorcerer!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "He was then incinerated by the captain of the team... we have been warned several experiments are still active inside that lab!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "The tentacle did all that?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "yes, it was a tentacle!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Apparently."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "You'd better believe it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "we can't enter this place like scouts! We need a recon bot!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes sounds *just a little* skeptical. "Ah-huh. Okay. Try throwing it a Japanese schoolgirl. I'll round up some guards."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I got a SWAT team out here with me. I think one'r two of 'em are Reploids."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "haven't we got any metools for recon? Wait, no, I have an idea..."
Oannes arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Oannes has arrived.
The camera over the door continues to pan back and forth silently. The goop smeared into the control panel appears to have killed the tentacles - at least, they're inactive now. The voice continue to issue out of the speaker as the plasma cannon flash-atomizes Smitt and remains.
"Quick thinking, Sergeant. Well. It seems we're getting quite a party. I presume Director Abernathy is watching over linked helmet cams, or some such."
There's a loud [KLUNK] from the door and a low humm as power is restored. Of course, with power restored, all the alarms for biocontamination and radiation alert start going nuts. With a hiss, the doors start to part.
"Welcome to... my lab."
And who should show with Bridgit's SWAT troopers -- more, several seconds after the UNED director and her entourage appear on-scene -- but a certain Director of Interpol, with appropriate body armor of his own. And a command helmet. As their little demon had rightly surmised, he had been watching. It had just taken longer than he'd wanted to scramble the remaining troops.
Unholstering his own plasma pistol, Abernathy steps up to the SWAT team. " ... my, my. We're getting quite busy down here, aren't we?" he murmurs. He's angry.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the blast door and in the midst of Hell, the sergeant returns the plasma cannon to the equipment cart with a snarl. As his HUD begins to go crazy with the warnings registering on the cart's sensors, he calmly pulls out his oxymask and clicks it into place on his helmet. His voice, when he speaks next, is slightly muffled: "Break out the other cannons, boys, and get your masks on. Looks like we're going in. And you -- " His hand shoots out, landing on Gale's shoulder and hopefully pinning the cowardly RDI director in place. " -- Ain't going anywhere. We need someone who can deal with any #$@! that might pop outta that lab." Glancing toward Trunk, he adds: "You, too, log. We need people who can touch stuff without worrying about turning into a pile of quivering /goo/."
The soldiers try not to look toward the blackened husk that was Smitt. Most don't succeed. A few retching noises, muffled by masks, can be heard over the wailing of the alarms.
"Log, log? Oh, now that's just harsh," complained Terra Trunk, looking quite upset. For all of three seconds. "Actually, now that I think about it, I am sort of like a log. In general shape, at least. Still..."
He pokes his head in the doorway. Just out of curiosity. He does, however, gaze around with his enhanced sensory package, just making sure that there's nothing significant he should, you know, warn the gumbies about first. Sheesh, this is not how he wanted to spend his evening, I can tell you that.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey sounds a little harried when she next transmits, "Okay! I think I've got a lock on the signal in the labs, but it sounds like it's been -- " " -- bounced off a couple of satellites! It'll be a while before I can get the trace in, sir!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "damn!"
Bridgit Cascio grumbles quietly as a couple of the SWAT officers stiffen at the arrival of Abernathy. "Oh, relax, we got a job t'do, not be salutin' people," she snarls as Einstein continues his bevy of growling and hackle-raising. And then the alarms start their dirge. "Aw, Jesus - what'd these idiots let grow this time; their leftover lunches in th'back of the specimen fridge?" she growls as she looks towards the two SWATs sent off to look for a safe way to enter the labs properly. "An' what's all this about tentacles anyhow? They ain't makin' much sense in there."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "still try to locate it! try it at least"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Where's that little sugar-freak kid, Midi? Bet he could find it..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "he must be on a break. Geez, now of all moments..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] NIL, aka Signal Lark, transmits, "I don't know, ma'am! He hasn't logged in yet today! -- Hang on, I think I've got a proper trace ... "
Gale Sorcerer doesn't put on a mask of course, he's still a reploid even if he doesn't look like it at first sight. After listening to the sergeant's and everyone else's words, the mage shakes his head. "He said not to touch it if you're organic. Trunk is a bioroid... what we need is a rep..." He then looks around. He seems to be the only reploid around here, or probably the only one who would be sent in to peek. That doesn't sounds well. "we... need... er..." The mage eyes everyone behind him. "A hologram! Behold!" A snapping of fingers later, a small holographic insect appears in front of the RDI director's face and heads towards the barely opened doors to see what's inside the freaky lab. "Now, let's see..."
Gale Sorcerer projects a holographic image of A fly.
A fly has arrived.
The interior of Lab 23 is dark, lit only by feebly flicking fluorescents. What those lights reveal is disgusting, disturbing and... well, the term 'carnage' sums it up fairly well. The back wall is dominated by large glass tanks, all shattered. Various liquids drip onto the floor from inside them. But of far more immediate interest are the lab assistants. Or what's left of them anyhow.
In the very center of the room is an amalgamation of body parts, cybernetics, and weird machinery, all fused together. Screaming eyeless faces ring the top of it, features matching those of the personnel assigned to this laboratory. Limbs, both human and inhuman flail blindly at the fresh air coming through the door. The air itself is a miasmic haze, the source a set of odd plantlike things sitting against the left wall.
The rest of the room is filled with computers equipment, esoteric surgical implements, and several 'work tables' covered in a variety of different types of gore. Overhead, a large screen flickers to life, projecting the Octo-Triagram surrounding the Ying-Yang in crimson red.
"This rather... unfortunate being - Or group, whatever you want to call it, is the price my assistants paid for refusing to help me... continue with my work. I'm afraid I had to.. pick their brains. You'll be pleased to find, however, that they're all still quite helpful in my researches. It's not as though I need the brainstem - so I left that for you to play with."
Terra Trunk is not paying attention to the massive glob of people. Instead, he just noticed Gale's holo-fly, and he glares at it with some sort of look of horror.
"Watch out! It's another one of those beastly nanite things!"
His hat flips off, and an armature extends, holding a bright red flyswatter. Terra Trunk then proceeds to chase and furiously bat at the buzzing holo-fly.
"Good grief, this fellow's a tough one! Come on, have at you! Hoo ha!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "I think I have it! I think I've got the trace!!" A pause. "...Oh, dear. I guess not. Lost the slippery thing in the satellites." *sigh*
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer doesn't answer
Midi arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Midi has arrived.
Midi
"The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground..."
At first, you might not see him. As the average robot roaming the world is typically taller than the average human, anything much shorter than two meters tends to be ignored. If he gets your attention somehow, though, you may be so inclined to look down further and see ... a small Reploid.
This Reploid is humanoid, an oddity in and of itself. Another oddity is that he would probably aspire to be more than 4 feet tall -- as it is, he barely reaches 1.2 meters (approximately 4 feet) provided that he's standing up completely straight and really pulling on his internal hydrolics. His armor's color scheme is primarily green, with intermittent white trim. As he wears a helmet as well, he has a passing resemblance to Rock (... minus several feet, a buster weapon, most of the offensive and defensive power, etc).
One thing stands out about him, aside from his height -- he has pleasing features that could be said to be `cute'. He has large, inquisitive blue eyes that hold a certain innocence within them -- but also a significant intellect. He has a little button nose and a mouth that seems to be more often than not smiling for no apparent reason. His body language and behavior generate a certain charisma and friendliness, though he doesn't seem to be particularly outgoing.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice of Lab 23 crackles onto the channel. "Did you really think I'd make it easy to trace me?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "Captain Midi? Are you on-channel? Commander Sorcerer isn't responding to my tightbeams, and I can't get through the encryption on this signal -- " *gasp!*
The two SWAT officers return a few moments later to Bridgit, and report the labs are locked down fairly tightly save for the air vents, which are large enough for maintenance workers to crawl through... The woman scowls, and looks up - way up - at the vents visible outside. "Dammit. I can't get in there," she grouses before picking out the two Reploids present in the squad. "They were mutterin' somethin' about things bein' unhealthy in there, an' wantin' non-organic medics - I want you two t'go ahead an' see what's goin' on. The rest of us, let's find th' hazmat equipment room and suit up." A shaking and rattling of weaponry and light armor marks an assent, and the remaining troops round the corridor corner for the hazmat room, while the two Reploids boost each other up for the vent systems.
Bridgit sighs, watching the troops go past. "Dammit. I'm gettin' too old for this crap," she mutters, mostly to herself but easily overheard by Abernathy should he so choose. "What the hell were those idiots doin' in there anyway? I'm hearin' stuff about tentacles an' nanites an' who knows WHAT else! Ain't there limits on what they oughta be screwin' with?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Who the hell are you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice continues. "Ask Director Abernathy. I'm sure he's done some checking, and can answer that. Director?"
Oannes has disconnected.
Fortunately for everyone in the area near the poor mage, Gale Sorcerer is a robot with an internal partially based wind system. And it's all because of that why everything that was on his stomach doesn't jump out through his mouth after watching what was inside of the room. The emotionless holographic fly stands for a moment floating in the entrance of the laboratory before it just pops off into pixels. At that same time, the RDI director falls onto the ground over his knees holding his head. "BLARGH!!"-he just screams-"What the-! Oh gross!! This is gore... it's all... #$& gore! argh..." Unnoticing Trunk as he attempts to catch his fly, the mage just lies there rambling incoherently with a hand on his stomach.
Gale Sorcerer turns off his holographic projection of A fly.
A fly has left.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Someone better start givin' me a straight answer before I get really p***ed off."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, coldly: "Dr. Nathan Xiang, lately of United Nations employ. Why am I not surprised at this turn of events, Dr. Xiang?"
"At ease," the Director mutters to the same officers. No, Abernathy was not likely to get used to the whole military formality bit. He listens to Bri's plaints thoughtfully, though his attention seems to be elsewhere -- on the HUD of the command helmet, probably. Between tracking the video feed from the soldiers inside, and listening to the cross-talk on the radio, life was turning into quite a trip.
He seems about to reply as the SWATs return -- but instead waits from them to get their orders, listening to the chatter of the soldiers inside and commenting once or twice into his own radio feed.
"As far as I can tell," he finally replies to Bridgit's question, voice still calm with undertones of anger, "someone actually touched the doors, prompting some kind of nanite tentacle thing to attack. It dissolved him." He frowns at something caught over the radio, peering over Bridgit's shoulder at the troops departing for the hazmat room, before returning his attention to the datafeed.
The sergeant holds an arm out, keeping his troops back from the fatal door -- not that they need much encouragement not to go in there -- as Gale Sorcerer sends out the holofly to scout things out. Many of the men nervously check their weapons, pulling plasma and slugthrower rifles from their holsters and giving them thorough once-overs.
That activity ceases, however, as the sorcerer goes down. "C...Commander? Are you all right?" one of the privates asks, starting forward to help the RDI director up. A more prosaic thought occurs to the sergeant. "Let's get in there," he growls.
Almost as one, the soldiers go to work, one or two pausing long enough to watch Gale's demonstration with the fly -- before setting their jaws grimly behind oxymasks and pressing on into the lab. The equipment cart comes with them, as does the plasma cutter and rest of the weaponry. Only the appearance of the -- abomination -- in the middle of the floor checks their motion.
" ... holy God in heaven ... "
And, back outside the blast doors, Abernathy pales as the video feed flicks across his HUD.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... aw, *@!(ing /great/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "
duskpaw's new character, Dr. Nathan Xiang. He's going to be a very fine addition to M3's tradition of evil doctors.Title: Into Hell
Date: 08 February 2003
Players: Abernathy (logging), Bridgit Cascio, Gale Sorcerer, Dr. Nathan Xiang, Midi, Terra Trunk
Summary: When Dr. Nathan Xiang begins taunting Interpol over radio over their 'oversight' of his ruined lab, the UN Enforcement Division and RDI spring into action. Unfortunately, they get much more than they bargained for...
UN HQ - Applied Sciences
Gate's Lab [GL]
[S]outh leads to UN HQ - The Vault.
----Abernathy----
There is something unfinished about this man, a sort of loose ranginess that most young humans evince at some point in their lives. On many people, it lends an air of awkwardness, but he wears the look like a set of well-fitting clothes: comfortable and almost elegant. This grace of carriage nearly serves to erase the pronounced limp he walks with, minimizing it to a peripheral flaw.
His thin build--muscular, but still distinctly ectomorphic--serves only as an accent to the deceptive appearance of a kid in his teens. Combined with the lean lines of his face, it creates an overall appearance of effeminateness, an appearance helped by the black makeup--lipstick, eyeshadow--he wears.
An albino, his coloration is stereotypical of that disorder: Skin and hair both white and nearly translucent in the proper light, eyes a pale, unnatural pink. His attire--primarily black, from collared shirt and greatcoat, to slacks and steel-toed boots--seems a calculated effect, rendering him positively spectral. A single lapel pin, the blue-and-silver emblem of the United Nations, breaks up the unrelieved darkness of the outfit.
The details of his appearance lend him a roguish mien, from the gel-spiked hair to the small silver ring in his pierced left ear. A pair of round-framed sunglasses--more functional than affectation, given his disorder--are perched on his nose, hiding his eyes and lending him an enigmatic touch appropriate to his position.
----Director General of Interpol----
Dr. Nathan Xiang arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Dr. Nathan Xiang has arrived.
Dr. Nathan Xiang
Dr. Nathan Xiang is a man in his mid 30's, early 40's. He's of Chinese descent, and stands about five foot five. Generally dressed in a labcoat that starts out clean, and ends up more than a little stained by the end of the day. Dark brown/black hair cut short fails to cover up the cables and conduits leading into sockets set into his skull. The cables lead down into his shoulders and spine. A few other cybernetic 'additions' give odd lumps to his back and upper arms. Otherwise he's mostly wiry. He wears a pair of glasses that obscure his eyes and cover the upper part of his face.
Terra Trunk arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Terra Trunk has arrived.
Terra Trunk
Terra Trunk looks fairly different today. Rather than a walking waste paper basket, his body is surprisingly round and spherical, and although it still has the slimy, rough appearance of rotting wood it's not tubular. His eyes still stare out from holes in the wood, with Vile-style darkness effect, and he's still wearing clogs... and a pale orange Metool Helmet, complete with cross and stripe round the back. You know, from a distance, he kind of looks like a big, fat Met, as a matter of fact.
Gale Sorcerer arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Gale Sorcerer has arrived.
Gale Sorcerer
Gale Sorcerer could look like a normal young human, if it wouldn't be by two obvious facts: his outfit makes him look like an ancient magician, and you can see and feel wind flowing around him. Behind the dark hair that covers some of his face, and also falls down his back, Gale Sorcerer usually has a calm look. On his head, he carries a big grey wizard hat that could keep his face in shadows whenever he'd want.
A big dark green cloak that reaches his feet covers most of his body when wind isn't moving it. The cloak is held by two golden shoulder-straps united by a golden chain. Under it, you can hardly see his wide dark blue outfit and brown boots.In his hands he wears a pair of brown gloves, where some kind of resorts can be seen, revealing he isn't a human.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] There is a crackle of static across the radio. "So. You still haven't noticed, have you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Eh, what?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, warily: "Noticed what, praytell?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The unidentified speaker continues, "When was the last time you heard anything from Vault lab 23? Don't you think it a bit... strange? No reports. No requests for equipment or supplies. Tch. I'm rather... disappointed."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "oh, no! not the damn cockroaches again!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy can be heard swearing quietly in the background.
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "Commander Sorcerer. Get Private Trunk and meet me in the applied sciences area of the Vault. /Now/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Well, you never hear much of a request from Vault lab 63 either, but that's mine and I do most of my equipment and supply shopping myself, so you could assume..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The speaker is silent for a moment. "No. Not the cockroaches. Tch. You didn't even wonder why no-one has seen or heard from my lab assistants, either. So sloppy. Of course, I did take certain steps..."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "now? sigh, oh, well, okay..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Something up, Mr. Abernathy? Hmmm... do I know you, mysterious sir?"
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "[frostily] That's an order, commander. I don't care if it 'inconveniences' you."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "yes, yes, no problem. I'm already in there right now anyway..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice replies, "No. I don't think you do. I took steps in that regard. Most of the people who know who I am... well, you'll see. I'm waiting." The signal breaks apart into static again, and then cuts out.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, antic: "Oh, quite possibly, private. Quite possibly."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Most unusual. You hang on, I'm coming down there myself..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "this sounds like either a joke or a bad horror movie"
*rapparapparapparappa*
The sound of what appears to be a midget in clogs skipping down a metal hall can be heard from outside, as the UN's most accomplished eccentric slab of rotting wood curiously makes his way down to the 23rd lab. He's wearing a Met hat that fits him pretty well, too. Must be something to do with Gale's 'horror movie' comment... well, never hurts to take precautions...
The clatter of several booted feet on concrete can be heard from the 'main' section of the vault, presaging the arrival of several riot-armored UNED guards. It looks like someone /had/ actually noticed the lack of response from Lab 23, and decided to think of the radio transmissions as a little more serious than someone trying to play a practical joke.
You could never be too cautious, after all.
The doors to Vault 23 are currently silent, immobile and unresponsive. The keypad next to the door is dark, apparently without power. All of the activity seems to affect these unmoving monoliths not a whit, as they remain silent, and immobile.
Walking annoyed towards the entrance doors of the UN Applied Sciences, the shape of the young RDI director can be seen going through the inside of that very same part of the building, while putting a CD-ROM back into its case and into his pocket. Grumbling a bit, Gale Sorcerer adjusts his wizard hat and opens the door, awaiting both his boss, Dr. Trunk, and anything else that's coming. "It's always the same, hmpf. I take some time in Applied Sciences to work on some holograms, and then they need me for something. Geez..."
"Well, Gale, it's a moth if it's an egg on a leaf, it seems," noted Terra Trunk, staring up at the newly arrived group of armed guards. "A little spooky, don't you think? But surely this is a little over the top, perhaps?"
The doors to the Lab continue to just... well, be doors. It's amazing, really.
Right on the clogged heels of Terra Trunk, the guards arrive at the door to Lab 23. Their commander frowns, under his riot helmet, as he notes the dead keypad. "Looks like we're going to have to force the door, boys," he mutters, gruffly. "Somebody get the plasma cutter up here!" Pausing, he glances over at the two scientists ... and smirks. "Whatever it is, it ain't funny. Don't get in the way, you two."
Over the door, a tiny little red light flickers to life. If anyone happens to glance that direction, they might noticed the monitor camera has come to life. Theoretically, this allows the people in the lab to check and see who's outside, and open the doors for them.
"Trunk, why have you put on that metool..." Gale Sorcerer points at the bioroid's would-be head, stopping right when the guards arrive and start trying to open the doors. "Uh, nevermind..." He then stares at his watch, then at the guards again. "Fortunately I was on the computers of the entrance of Applied Sciences, it could have taken me a while to come in here. So, I presume tha-" The eyes of the mage blink for a moment before going all big and giving Trunk a worried look. "What is that... oh, right, the monitor camera...."- Gale scratches his hat a bit-"This place gives me the creeps, it almost looks like one of those modern horror movies. Well, how can we open this?"
"Apparently, they're hauling in some sort of plasma cutter," replied Terra Trunk matter-of-factly. He looks up at the camera and does his best to just look gleefully at it, since he can't smile or wave or anything. "Modern horror films? Can't say I can relate, sadly. More a fan of the theatre, myself... In any case, we'd better stand back if they intend to get rough."
The guards, being guards, and not specifically trained on modern horror movies, do not immediately note the security light. This is likely because they're ignoring the scientists now, in the interest of getting the plasma cutter set up to use on the doors. One enterprising soldier -- attempting to be funny -- moves forward to knock on one of the door panels. "Yo! Open up in there!"
A couple of nervous snickers arise from the detail. The sergeant frowns. "Don't be a dumbass, Smitt. Get back here and help with the cutter," he barks, compelling instant obedience.
Horror movie? More like Aliens.
Poor Smitt. He knocked on the doors. In response to the vibrations, the nano-mites that had been seeded in the door respond with rather surprising alacrity. Wires erupt out of the 'dead' keypad, blindly seeking the source of the vibrations. Curling and twisting together into tentacles of mechanical origin, they lash out, seeking to burrow into flesh or machine in their path.
Of course, the nanites only have stored power for a few seconds of activity... but is that too long for Smitt?
"By thunder, watch it!" shouted Terra Trunk, and his Methat flips off as a large, purple mushroom is spat from his trunk, in an attempt to whack the sudden attack of nano-tentacles.
"It looks to me as if we're getting ourselves into a whole lot more than we bargained for, chaps! Look sharp and keep on your toes, we might be heading for trouble!"
"Not that I'm a fan of those, of course."-replies Gale to Trunk while he stands back to let the guards work-"Just that it's too typical: Thought-to-be-abandoned machinery that begins working, dark places where you can't get any help from, all the NPCs dying... oops.." The mage adjusts his hat again. Now all the thoughts about Raccoon City are coming back to his mind. And it took him all that time to try to forget those, sigh... "Anyway, let's let them work for now. They don't seem like they are enjoying our presence here too much... I wonder who- ARgh!" Screaming frenetically and jumping backwards at the sight regarding tentacles, plain, and NPCK attempt. "We need heavy machinery! I'm not going to die here!!!" Well, but they never get heavy machinery in horror movies. Or do they?
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "I love New York. They have the bessst food."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Some nameless UNED sergeant swears loudly. "F***! SHOOT THAT THING!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "with what? with wind? *sarcasm*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... do I even WANNA know what the flying **** is goin' on?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "some #%$@ security device activated and attacked a guard here!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Can't find ratsss bigger anywhere elssse."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio sighs. "You guys're /so/ lucky I'm comin' back from San An t'night..." [ch-CHAK]
It might just be.
A scream erupts from the unfortunate Smitt, the horrified soldier backpedaling away from the mechanical tentacle that's reaching for him. The scream turns into a liquid burble as the tentacle, not quite diverted from its aims by Trunk's attempted intervention, burrows into his chest. He slumps, a horrified look blossoming on his face as the nano-mites finally die.
The sergeant swears into his radio, whipping out his sidearm and shooting at the dying tentacle in a crazed, spinal reflex. The rest of the guards look horrified. One makes an abortive start toward Smitt, now lying in a puddle of his own blood and gurgling on the floor, but draws up short at the sight of the still-thrashing tentacle. Turning, he points at Trunk. "Y ... you! R-reploid! You m-move him! It can't kill you!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Please. Do you think anyone truly want to hear about your eating habits?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "I....do..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Let me possse you another quessstion... Do I care if anyone wantsss to know about my eating habitsss?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Now, where's th' fire? I gotcher fire extinguisher right here... [sound of a gun being cocked]"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Why do YOU want to know, human?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, unamused: "... Shall I scramble a squad with bigger weapons?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "'Cuz...bored..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "And wanna piss off Doppler"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "With all due respect, Miss Cascio, I think you should stay put. We're under attack from quite a potent metal tentacle that's badly wounded one man within a few seconds of it appearance!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "the vault! in applied sciences, lab 23. Bring someone experienced and well equipped before someone gets killed!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "They have big roboratsss. I caught a normal rat yesssterday, and Plant wasss going to cook it up for Crash Man to eat. Unfortunately, Roll'sss cat ssstole it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I ain't afraid of some metal reject. I'll be there in a couple minutes with a squad."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Ah, the esteemed musician. *sarcasm* And what do I the owe the honor of your attention?"
Bridgit Cascio arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Bridgit Cascio has arrived.
Bridgit Cascio
Nearing 45 years of age, this particular female human stands a proud if not short 5'5". The diminutive woman shows her age gracefully, gray mingled in the coppery hair at the temples and bangs. Small wrinkles at the sides of her emerald green eyes, which flash like fire when the mood takes her, reflect years of squinting into too many searchlights and working too many late patrols. Freckles dot across her cheekbones and nose, which carries a pair of silver wire-rimmed glasses on them easily. Her hands are never still, and tend to have something in them -- coffee cup, usually, or a mechanic's wrench. Her face is set in a determined near-scowl which appears to be permanent.
Wearing the everyday uniform is much less a trial for Bridgit, and she carries it well. The jacket is two-toned: a vest-like component of orange-tan edged in black, matched up with slate blue sleeves. The neckline of the jacket is cut away substantially, and underneath she wears a light cyan-coloured shirt and a black tie. The shirt's collar tabs carry small silver rectangles to demarcate her rank, with larger ones on either side of her jacket's lapels.
The jacket is cinched shut around waist with a wide brown leather belt, the silver buckle engraved with the UN insignia. Her pants are the same slate blue as her jacket sleeves, and neatly creased down the centre, brushing the tops of her highly polished black boots. Neat as a pin, and everything in order: this is Bridgit Cascio to the letter.
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "That thieving Tango! *a pause* What?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy mutters something about the squad not being teenage girls in fukus.
Terra Trunk pauses to consider this for a second. "Hrrrmm... you know something, you're probably right, actually. Let's see if I can't gum that blighter up, first though!"
Terra Trunk's hat pirouettes as he shoots another mushroom, and this one explodes into a splatter of spores and goo to try and coat the tentacle at its base. Terra Trunk scatters some seeds around Smitt, which quickly knit together into some sort of nanite stretcher, made of interknitted vines that start to wriggle away with its injured passenger to safety.
The tiny screen above the keypad flickers to life. There's nothing on it at first, but then eight symbols appear in an octagonal pattern - the eight triagrams of the I-Ching. In the middle of this appears the Ying-Yang. And the voice which you heard earlier comes out of the speakers.
"I suppose I should have mentioned. A few of the experiments are running... loose. You might want to be careful while trying to get in. As for the one on the floor... he's dead. The nanites are coded to break down any organic flesh they encounter, drawing on body heat for energy. I wouldn't touch him if your organic. They are quite contagious."
Even as he speaks, Smitt's flesh shrivels, cracks, and reddish grey liquid seeps out of his orifices and the cracks in his skin.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio OOCs, "I almost made a hentai crack, you know."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Yesss, I think it would have been entertaining to sssee Crash eat fried rat."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "I understand roast rat is becoming a delicacy in central Africa. Is there any truth to that?"
Frequency c is now gagged.
"Holy SHIT! SERGEANT!" the guard nearest Smitt wails, scrambling away from the liquifying soldier. The rest of the unit, alerted by the yell, turns to glance at Smitt -- and then begin the mass stampede AWAY, especially as the 'quite contagious' bit from the speaker registers.
The sergeant, ever prosaic, takes one look at his dying man. He listens for a moment to the voice over the keypad. Then he unholsters his plasma rifle, turns it up to 'full yield', and shoots the unfortunate Smitt. Set phasers to 'deep fry'; goodbye, nanites. "All right, you mewling milksops," he growls. "This is war."
The sounds of heavy footsteps outside barely make their way through the thick blast doors, and the gaggle of voices from outside only quiet down when one very strident bark for order rides over the din. Bridgit, freshly back from her stint in San Angeles overseeing the rebuilding of the northern outskirts, has firmly taken control of a small squad of heavily armed SWAT troopers. They're slightly more beefed up than the usual SWAT teams, made up of human and Reploid alike. There is, however, only ten - and Bridgit herself, who is currently chambering up her .45 Brigadier pistol. Einstein stands at her side, snarling and growling at the door ferally.
"Wait," she mutters, holding up her hand at the silent soldiers. "If Einstein's actin' funky, there's bad *(&@ goin' down in there. See if there's another way in," she orders two of the soldiers before she stares at the door, frowning, and grumbling into her radio.
"What a day to be a Bioroid, eh? Good thing there's more life in a recently peeled banana than in this trunk," grumbled Terra Trunk, hopping in the air. He's pretty glad he brought that hat along now, all thing considered. He grumbles as he hears the sound of activity outside... "Oh, no, if that's Miss Cascio..."
"Oh, gross!!" Gale Sorcerer covers his eyes as Smith's body starts collapsing, becoming a nasty and not-too-pleasant-to-see-body, right after the voice speaks again. Still without looking, the mage begins speaking in his radio. "Someone, we need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..." Gale continues watching the sergeant and the rest of the guards, while he tries to speak. "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!" He than grabs Trunk by the arm. "We should get the hell away from here! And you should too!"-he yells at the sergeant. It's then when he turns to see Bridgit in the other side. Too late to run now.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I'm outside the labs. Now. Someone tell me in under a hundred words what the *(&@ is goin' on in there. -Now-."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Uh?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "We need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "The tentacle that attacked private Smitt contained nanites that ultra-necrotised his body."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Tentacle?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Tentacle."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey transmits, "Yes sir, Commander Sorcerer!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "He was then incinerated by the captain of the team... we have been warned several experiments are still active inside that lab!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "The tentacle did all that?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "yes, it was a tentacle!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Apparently."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "You'd better believe it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "we can't enter this place like scouts! We need a recon bot!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes sounds *just a little* skeptical. "Ah-huh. Okay. Try throwing it a Japanese schoolgirl. I'll round up some guards."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I got a SWAT team out here with me. I think one'r two of 'em are Reploids."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "haven't we got any metools for recon? Wait, no, I have an idea..."
Oannes arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Oannes has arrived.
The camera over the door continues to pan back and forth silently. The goop smeared into the control panel appears to have killed the tentacles - at least, they're inactive now. The voice continue to issue out of the speaker as the plasma cannon flash-atomizes Smitt and remains.
"Quick thinking, Sergeant. Well. It seems we're getting quite a party. I presume Director Abernathy is watching over linked helmet cams, or some such."
There's a loud [KLUNK] from the door and a low humm as power is restored. Of course, with power restored, all the alarms for biocontamination and radiation alert start going nuts. With a hiss, the doors start to part.
"Welcome to... my lab."
And who should show with Bridgit's SWAT troopers -- more, several seconds after the UNED director and her entourage appear on-scene -- but a certain Director of Interpol, with appropriate body armor of his own. And a command helmet. As their little demon had rightly surmised, he had been watching. It had just taken longer than he'd wanted to scramble the remaining troops.
Unholstering his own plasma pistol, Abernathy steps up to the SWAT team. " ... my, my. We're getting quite busy down here, aren't we?" he murmurs. He's angry.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the blast door and in the midst of Hell, the sergeant returns the plasma cannon to the equipment cart with a snarl. As his HUD begins to go crazy with the warnings registering on the cart's sensors, he calmly pulls out his oxymask and clicks it into place on his helmet. His voice, when he speaks next, is slightly muffled: "Break out the other cannons, boys, and get your masks on. Looks like we're going in. And you -- " His hand shoots out, landing on Gale's shoulder and hopefully pinning the cowardly RDI director in place. " -- Ain't going anywhere. We need someone who can deal with any #$@! that might pop outta that lab." Glancing toward Trunk, he adds: "You, too, log. We need people who can touch stuff without worrying about turning into a pile of quivering /goo/."
The soldiers try not to look toward the blackened husk that was Smitt. Most don't succeed. A few retching noises, muffled by masks, can be heard over the wailing of the alarms.
"Log, log? Oh, now that's just harsh," complained Terra Trunk, looking quite upset. For all of three seconds. "Actually, now that I think about it, I am sort of like a log. In general shape, at least. Still..."
He pokes his head in the doorway. Just out of curiosity. He does, however, gaze around with his enhanced sensory package, just making sure that there's nothing significant he should, you know, warn the gumbies about first. Sheesh, this is not how he wanted to spend his evening, I can tell you that.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey sounds a little harried when she next transmits, "Okay! I think I've got a lock on the signal in the labs, but it sounds like it's been -- "
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "damn!"
Bridgit Cascio grumbles quietly as a couple of the SWAT officers stiffen at the arrival of Abernathy. "Oh, relax, we got a job t'do, not be salutin' people," she snarls as Einstein continues his bevy of growling and hackle-raising. And then the alarms start their dirge. "Aw, Jesus - what'd these idiots let grow this time; their leftover lunches in th'back of the specimen fridge?" she growls as she looks towards the two SWATs sent off to look for a safe way to enter the labs properly. "An' what's all this about tentacles anyhow? They ain't makin' much sense in there."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "still try to locate it! try it at least"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Where's that little sugar-freak kid, Midi? Bet he could find it..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "he must be on a break. Geez, now of all moments..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] NIL, aka Signal Lark, transmits, "I don't know, ma'am! He hasn't logged in yet today! -- Hang on, I think I've got a proper trace ... "
Gale Sorcerer doesn't put on a mask of course, he's still a reploid even if he doesn't look like it at first sight. After listening to the sergeant's and everyone else's words, the mage shakes his head. "He said not to touch it if you're organic. Trunk is a bioroid... what we need is a rep..." He then looks around. He seems to be the only reploid around here, or probably the only one who would be sent in to peek. That doesn't sounds well. "we... need... er..." The mage eyes everyone behind him. "A hologram! Behold!" A snapping of fingers later, a small holographic insect appears in front of the RDI director's face and heads towards the barely opened doors to see what's inside the freaky lab. "Now, let's see..."
Gale Sorcerer projects a holographic image of A fly.
A fly has arrived.
The interior of Lab 23 is dark, lit only by feebly flicking fluorescents. What those lights reveal is disgusting, disturbing and... well, the term 'carnage' sums it up fairly well. The back wall is dominated by large glass tanks, all shattered. Various liquids drip onto the floor from inside them. But of far more immediate interest are the lab assistants. Or what's left of them anyhow.
In the very center of the room is an amalgamation of body parts, cybernetics, and weird machinery, all fused together. Screaming eyeless faces ring the top of it, features matching those of the personnel assigned to this laboratory. Limbs, both human and inhuman flail blindly at the fresh air coming through the door. The air itself is a miasmic haze, the source a set of odd plantlike things sitting against the left wall.
The rest of the room is filled with computers equipment, esoteric surgical implements, and several 'work tables' covered in a variety of different types of gore. Overhead, a large screen flickers to life, projecting the Octo-Triagram surrounding the Ying-Yang in crimson red.
"This rather... unfortunate being - Or group, whatever you want to call it, is the price my assistants paid for refusing to help me... continue with my work. I'm afraid I had to.. pick their brains. You'll be pleased to find, however, that they're all still quite helpful in my researches. It's not as though I need the brainstem - so I left that for you to play with."
Terra Trunk is not paying attention to the massive glob of people. Instead, he just noticed Gale's holo-fly, and he glares at it with some sort of look of horror.
"Watch out! It's another one of those beastly nanite things!"
His hat flips off, and an armature extends, holding a bright red flyswatter. Terra Trunk then proceeds to chase and furiously bat at the buzzing holo-fly.
"Good grief, this fellow's a tough one! Come on, have at you! Hoo ha!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "I think I have it! I think I've got the trace!!" A pause. "...Oh, dear. I guess not. Lost the slippery thing in the satellites." *sigh*
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer doesn't answer
Midi arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Midi has arrived.
Midi
"The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground..."
At first, you might not see him. As the average robot roaming the world is typically taller than the average human, anything much shorter than two meters tends to be ignored. If he gets your attention somehow, though, you may be so inclined to look down further and see ... a small Reploid.
This Reploid is humanoid, an oddity in and of itself. Another oddity is that he would probably aspire to be more than 4 feet tall -- as it is, he barely reaches 1.2 meters (approximately 4 feet) provided that he's standing up completely straight and really pulling on his internal hydrolics. His armor's color scheme is primarily green, with intermittent white trim. As he wears a helmet as well, he has a passing resemblance to Rock (... minus several feet, a buster weapon, most of the offensive and defensive power, etc).
One thing stands out about him, aside from his height -- he has pleasing features that could be said to be `cute'. He has large, inquisitive blue eyes that hold a certain innocence within them -- but also a significant intellect. He has a little button nose and a mouth that seems to be more often than not smiling for no apparent reason. His body language and behavior generate a certain charisma and friendliness, though he doesn't seem to be particularly outgoing.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice of Lab 23 crackles onto the channel. "Did you really think I'd make it easy to trace me?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "Captain Midi? Are you on-channel? Commander Sorcerer isn't responding to my tightbeams, and I can't get through the encryption on this signal -- " *gasp!*
The two SWAT officers return a few moments later to Bridgit, and report the labs are locked down fairly tightly save for the air vents, which are large enough for maintenance workers to crawl through... The woman scowls, and looks up - way up - at the vents visible outside. "Dammit. I can't get in there," she grouses before picking out the two Reploids present in the squad. "They were mutterin' somethin' about things bein' unhealthy in there, an' wantin' non-organic medics - I want you two t'go ahead an' see what's goin' on. The rest of us, let's find th' hazmat equipment room and suit up." A shaking and rattling of weaponry and light armor marks an assent, and the remaining troops round the corridor corner for the hazmat room, while the two Reploids boost each other up for the vent systems.
Bridgit sighs, watching the troops go past. "Dammit. I'm gettin' too old for this crap," she mutters, mostly to herself but easily overheard by Abernathy should he so choose. "What the hell were those idiots doin' in there anyway? I'm hearin' stuff about tentacles an' nanites an' who knows WHAT else! Ain't there limits on what they oughta be screwin' with?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Who the hell are you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice continues. "Ask Director Abernathy. I'm sure he's done some checking, and can answer that. Director?"
Oannes has disconnected.
Fortunately for everyone in the area near the poor mage, Gale Sorcerer is a robot with an internal partially based wind system. And it's all because of that why everything that was on his stomach doesn't jump out through his mouth after watching what was inside of the room. The emotionless holographic fly stands for a moment floating in the entrance of the laboratory before it just pops off into pixels. At that same time, the RDI director falls onto the ground over his knees holding his head. "BLARGH!!"-he just screams-"What the-! Oh gross!! This is gore... it's all... #$& gore! argh..." Unnoticing Trunk as he attempts to catch his fly, the mage just lies there rambling incoherently with a hand on his stomach.
Gale Sorcerer turns off his holographic projection of A fly.
A fly has left.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Someone better start givin' me a straight answer before I get really p***ed off."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, coldly: "Dr. Nathan Xiang, lately of United Nations employ. Why am I not surprised at this turn of events, Dr. Xiang?"
"At ease," the Director mutters to the same officers. No, Abernathy was not likely to get used to the whole military formality bit. He listens to Bri's plaints thoughtfully, though his attention seems to be elsewhere -- on the HUD of the command helmet, probably. Between tracking the video feed from the soldiers inside, and listening to the cross-talk on the radio, life was turning into quite a trip.
He seems about to reply as the SWATs return -- but instead waits from them to get their orders, listening to the chatter of the soldiers inside and commenting once or twice into his own radio feed.
"As far as I can tell," he finally replies to Bridgit's question, voice still calm with undertones of anger, "someone actually touched the doors, prompting some kind of nanite tentacle thing to attack. It dissolved him." He frowns at something caught over the radio, peering over Bridgit's shoulder at the troops departing for the hazmat room, before returning his attention to the datafeed.
The sergeant holds an arm out, keeping his troops back from the fatal door -- not that they need much encouragement not to go in there -- as Gale Sorcerer sends out the holofly to scout things out. Many of the men nervously check their weapons, pulling plasma and slugthrower rifles from their holsters and giving them thorough once-overs.
That activity ceases, however, as the sorcerer goes down. "C...Commander? Are you all right?" one of the privates asks, starting forward to help the RDI director up. A more prosaic thought occurs to the sergeant. "Let's get in there," he growls.
Almost as one, the soldiers go to work, one or two pausing long enough to watch Gale's demonstration with the fly -- before setting their jaws grimly behind oxymasks and pressing on into the lab. The equipment cart comes with them, as does the plasma cutter and rest of the weaponry. Only the appearance of the -- abomination -- in the middle of the floor checks their motion.
" ... holy God in heaven ... "
And, back outside the blast doors, Abernathy pales as the video feed flicks across his HUD.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... aw, *@!(ing /great/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "
[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<sound [...] of..>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]
Marvelous scene on M3 today, to introduce <lj site="livejournal.com" user="duskpaw">'s new character, Dr. Nathan Xiang. He's going to be a very <i>fine</i> addition to M3's tradition of evil doctors.
<lj-cut text="'Welcome to... my lab.'">
Title: Into Hell
Date: 08 February 2003
Players: Abernathy (logging), Bridgit Cascio, Gale Sorcerer, Dr. Nathan Xiang, Midi, Terra Trunk
Summary: When Dr. Nathan Xiang begins taunting Interpol over radio over their 'oversight' of his ruined lab, the UN Enforcement Division and RDI spring into action. Unfortunately, they get much more than they bargained for...
UN HQ - Applied Sciences
Gate's Lab [GL]
[S]outh leads to UN HQ - The Vault.
----Abernathy----
There is something unfinished about this man, a sort of loose ranginess that most young humans evince at some point in their lives. On many people, it lends an air of awkwardness, but he wears the look like a set of well-fitting clothes: comfortable and almost elegant. This grace of carriage nearly serves to erase the pronounced limp he walks with, minimizing it to a peripheral flaw.
His thin build--muscular, but still distinctly ectomorphic--serves only as an accent to the deceptive appearance of a kid in his teens. Combined with the lean lines of his face, it creates an overall appearance of effeminateness, an appearance helped by the black makeup--lipstick, eyeshadow--he wears.
An albino, his coloration is stereotypical of that disorder: Skin and hair both white and nearly translucent in the proper light, eyes a pale, unnatural pink. His attire--primarily black, from collared shirt and greatcoat, to slacks and steel-toed boots--seems a calculated effect, rendering him positively spectral. A single lapel pin, the blue-and-silver emblem of the United Nations, breaks up the unrelieved darkness of the outfit.
The details of his appearance lend him a roguish mien, from the gel-spiked hair to the small silver ring in his pierced left ear. A pair of round-framed sunglasses--more functional than affectation, given his disorder--are perched on his nose, hiding his eyes and lending him an enigmatic touch appropriate to his position.
----Director General of Interpol----
Dr. Nathan Xiang arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Dr. Nathan Xiang has arrived.
Dr. Nathan Xiang
Dr. Nathan Xiang is a man in his mid 30's, early 40's. He's of Chinese descent, and stands about five foot five. Generally dressed in a labcoat that starts out clean, and ends up more than a little stained by the end of the day. Dark brown/black hair cut short fails to cover up the cables and conduits leading into sockets set into his skull. The cables lead down into his shoulders and spine. A few other cybernetic 'additions' give odd lumps to his back and upper arms. Otherwise he's mostly wiry. He wears a pair of glasses that obscure his eyes and cover the upper part of his face.
Terra Trunk arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Terra Trunk has arrived.
Terra Trunk
Terra Trunk looks fairly different today. Rather than a walking waste paper basket, his body is surprisingly round and spherical, and although it still has the slimy, rough appearance of rotting wood it's not tubular. His eyes still stare out from holes in the wood, with Vile-style darkness effect, and he's still wearing clogs... and a pale orange Metool Helmet, complete with cross and stripe round the back. You know, from a distance, he kind of looks like a big, fat Met, as a matter of fact.
Gale Sorcerer arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Gale Sorcerer has arrived.
Gale Sorcerer
Gale Sorcerer could look like a normal young human, if it wouldn't be by two obvious facts: his outfit makes him look like an ancient magician, and you can see and feel wind flowing around him. Behind the dark hair that covers some of his face, and also falls down his back, Gale Sorcerer usually has a calm look. On his head, he carries a big grey wizard hat that could keep his face in shadows whenever he'd want.
A big dark green cloak that reaches his feet covers most of his body when wind isn't moving it. The cloak is held by two golden shoulder-straps united by a golden chain. Under it, you can hardly see his wide dark blue outfit and brown boots.In his hands he wears a pair of brown gloves, where some kind of resorts can be seen, revealing he isn't a human.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] There is a crackle of static across the radio. "So. You still haven't noticed, have you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Eh, what?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, warily: "Noticed what, praytell?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The unidentified speaker continues, "When was the last time you heard anything from Vault lab 23? Don't you think it a bit... strange? No reports. No requests for equipment or supplies. Tch. I'm rather... disappointed."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "oh, no! not the damn cockroaches again!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy can be heard swearing quietly in the background.
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "Commander Sorcerer. Get Private Trunk and meet me in the applied sciences area of the Vault. /Now/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Well, you never hear much of a request from Vault lab 63 either, but that's mine and I do most of my equipment and supply shopping myself, so you could assume..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The speaker is silent for a moment. "No. Not the cockroaches. Tch. You didn't even wonder why no-one has seen or heard from my lab assistants, either. So sloppy. Of course, I did take certain steps..."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "now? sigh, oh, well, okay..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Something up, Mr. Abernathy? Hmmm... do I know you, mysterious sir?"
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "[frostily] That's an order, commander. I don't care if it 'inconveniences' you."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "yes, yes, no problem. I'm already in there right now anyway..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice replies, "No. I don't think you do. I took steps in that regard. Most of the people who know who I am... well, you'll see. I'm waiting." The signal breaks apart into static again, and then cuts out.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, antic: "Oh, quite possibly, private. Quite possibly."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Most unusual. You hang on, I'm coming down there myself..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "this sounds like either a joke or a bad horror movie"
*rapparapparapparappa*
The sound of what appears to be a midget in clogs skipping down a metal hall can be heard from outside, as the UN's most accomplished eccentric slab of rotting wood curiously makes his way down to the 23rd lab. He's wearing a Met hat that fits him pretty well, too. Must be something to do with Gale's 'horror movie' comment... well, never hurts to take precautions...
The clatter of several booted feet on concrete can be heard from the 'main' section of the vault, presaging the arrival of several riot-armored UNED guards. It looks like someone /had/ actually noticed the lack of response from Lab 23, and decided to think of the radio transmissions as a little more serious than someone trying to play a practical joke.
You could never be too cautious, after all.
          The doors to Vault 23 are currently silent, immobile and unresponsive. The keypad next to the door is dark, apparently without power. All of the activity seems to affect these unmoving monoliths not a whit, as they remain silent, and immobile.
Walking annoyed towards the entrance doors of the UN Applied Sciences, the shape of the young RDI director can be seen going through the inside of that very same part of the building, while putting a CD-ROM back into its case and into his pocket. Grumbling a bit, Gale Sorcerer adjusts his wizard hat and opens the door, awaiting both his boss, Dr. Trunk, and anything else that's coming. "It's always the same, hmpf. I take some time in Applied Sciences to work on some holograms, and then they need me for something. Geez..."
"Well, Gale, it's a moth if it's an egg on a leaf, it seems," noted Terra Trunk, staring up at the newly arrived group of armed guards. "A little spooky, don't you think? But surely this is a little over the top, perhaps?"
          The doors to the Lab continue to just... well, be doors. It's amazing, really.
Right on the clogged heels of Terra Trunk, the guards arrive at the door to Lab 23. Their commander frowns, under his riot helmet, as he notes the dead keypad. "Looks like we're going to have to force the door, boys," he mutters, gruffly. "Somebody get the plasma cutter up here!" Pausing, he glances over at the two scientists ... and smirks. "Whatever it is, it ain't funny. Don't get in the way, you two."
          Over the door, a tiny little red light flickers to life. If anyone happens to glance that direction, they might noticed the monitor camera has come to life. Theoretically, this allows the people in the lab to check and see who's outside, and open the doors for them.
"Trunk, why have you put on that metool..." Gale Sorcerer points at the bioroid's would-be head, stopping right when the guards arrive and start trying to open the doors. "Uh, nevermind..." He then stares at his watch, then at the guards again. "Fortunately I was on the computers of the entrance of Applied Sciences, it could have taken me a while to come in here. So, I presume tha-" The eyes of the mage blink for a moment before going all big and giving Trunk a worried look. "What is that... oh, right, the monitor camera...."- Gale scratches his hat a bit-"This place gives me the creeps, it almost looks like one of those modern horror movies. Well, how can we open this?"
"Apparently, they're hauling in some sort of plasma cutter," replied Terra Trunk matter-of-factly. He looks up at the camera and does his best to just look gleefully at it, since he can't smile or wave or anything. "Modern horror films? Can't say I can relate, sadly. More a fan of the theatre, myself... In any case, we'd better stand back if they intend to get rough."
The guards, being guards, and not specifically trained on modern horror movies, do not immediately note the security light. This is likely because they're ignoring the scientists now, in the interest of getting the plasma cutter set up to use on the doors. One enterprising soldier -- attempting to be funny -- moves forward to knock on one of the door panels. "Yo! Open up in there!"
A couple of nervous snickers arise from the detail. The sergeant frowns. "Don't be a dumbass, Smitt. Get back here and help with the cutter," he barks, compelling instant obedience.
Horror movie? More like Aliens.
          Poor Smitt. He knocked on the doors. In response to the vibrations, the nano-mites that had been seeded in the door respond with rather surprising alacrity. Wires erupt out of the 'dead' keypad, blindly seeking the source of the vibrations. Curling and twisting together into tentacles of mechanical origin, they lash out, seeking to burrow into flesh or machine in their path.
          Of course, the nanites only have stored power for a few seconds of activity... but is that too long for Smitt?
"By thunder, watch it!" shouted Terra Trunk, and his Methat flips off as a large, purple mushroom is spat from his trunk, in an attempt to whack the sudden attack of nano-tentacles.
"It looks to me as if we're getting ourselves into a whole lot more than we bargained for, chaps! Look sharp and keep on your toes, we might be heading for trouble!"
"Not that I'm a fan of those, of course."-replies Gale to Trunk while he stands back to let the guards work-"Just that it's too typical: Thought-to-be-abandoned machinery that begins working, dark places where you can't get any help from, all the NPCs dying... oops.." The mage adjusts his hat again. Now all the thoughts about Raccoon City are coming back to his mind. And it took him all that time to try to forget those, sigh... "Anyway, let's let them work for now. They don't seem like they are enjoying our presence here too much... I wonder who- ARgh!" Screaming frenetically and jumping backwards at the sight regarding tentacles, plain, and NPCK attempt. "We need heavy machinery! I'm not going to die here!!!" Well, but they never get heavy machinery in horror movies. Or do they?
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "I love New York. They have the bessst food."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Some nameless UNED sergeant swears loudly. "F***! SHOOT THAT THING!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "with what? with wind? *sarcasm*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... do I even WANNA know what the flying **** is goin' on?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "some #%$@ security device activated and attacked a guard here!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Can't find ratsss bigger anywhere elssse."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio sighs. "You guys're /so/ lucky I'm comin' back from San An t'night..." [ch-CHAK]
It might just be.
A scream erupts from the unfortunate Smitt, the horrified soldier backpedaling away from the mechanical tentacle that's reaching for him. The scream turns into a liquid burble as the tentacle, not quite diverted from its aims by Trunk's attempted intervention, burrows into his chest. He slumps, a horrified look blossoming on his face as the nano-mites finally die.
The sergeant swears into his radio, whipping out his sidearm and shooting at the dying tentacle in a crazed, spinal reflex. The rest of the guards look horrified. One makes an abortive start toward Smitt, now lying in a puddle of his own blood and gurgling on the floor, but draws up short at the sight of the still-thrashing tentacle. Turning, he points at Trunk. "Y ... you! R-reploid! You m-move him! It can't kill you!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Please. Do you think anyone truly want to hear about your eating habits?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "I....do..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Let me possse you another quessstion... Do I care if anyone wantsss to know about my eating habitsss?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Now, where's th' fire? I gotcher fire extinguisher right here... [sound of a gun being cocked]"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Why do YOU want to know, human?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, unamused: "... Shall I scramble a squad with bigger weapons?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "'Cuz...bored..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "And wanna piss off Doppler"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "With all due respect, Miss Cascio, I think you should stay put. We're under attack from quite a potent metal tentacle that's badly wounded one man within a few seconds of it appearance!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "the vault! in applied sciences, lab 23. Bring someone experienced and well equipped before someone gets killed!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "They have big roboratsss. I caught a normal rat yesssterday, and Plant wasss going to cook it up for Crash Man to eat. Unfortunately, Roll'sss cat ssstole it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I ain't afraid of some metal reject. I'll be there in a couple minutes with a squad."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Ah, the esteemed musician. *sarcasm* And what do I the owe the honor of your attention?"
Bridgit Cascio arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Bridgit Cascio has arrived.
Bridgit Cascio
Nearing 45 years of age, this particular female human stands a proud if not short 5'5". The diminutive woman shows her age gracefully, gray mingled in the coppery hair at the temples and bangs. Small wrinkles at the sides of her emerald green eyes, which flash like fire when the mood takes her, reflect years of squinting into too many searchlights and working too many late patrols. Freckles dot across her cheekbones and nose, which carries a pair of silver wire-rimmed glasses on them easily. Her hands are never still, and tend to have something in them -- coffee cup, usually, or a mechanic's wrench. Her face is set in a determined near-scowl which appears to be permanent.
Wearing the everyday uniform is much less a trial for Bridgit, and she carries it well. The jacket is two-toned: a vest-like component of orange-tan edged in black, matched up with slate blue sleeves. The neckline of the jacket is cut away substantially, and underneath she wears a light cyan-coloured shirt and a black tie. The shirt's collar tabs carry small silver rectangles to demarcate her rank, with larger ones on either side of her jacket's lapels.
The jacket is cinched shut around waist with a wide brown leather belt, the silver buckle engraved with the UN insignia. Her pants are the same slate blue as her jacket sleeves, and neatly creased down the centre, brushing the tops of her highly polished black boots. Neat as a pin, and everything in order: this is Bridgit Cascio to the letter.
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "That thieving Tango! *a pause* What?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy mutters something about the squad not being teenage girls in fukus.
Terra Trunk pauses to consider this for a second. "Hrrrmm... you know something, you're probably right, actually. Let's see if I can't gum that blighter up, first though!"
Terra Trunk's hat pirouettes as he shoots another mushroom, and this one explodes into a splatter of spores and goo to try and coat the tentacle at its base. Terra Trunk scatters some seeds around Smitt, which quickly knit together into some sort of nanite stretcher, made of interknitted vines that start to wriggle away with its injured passenger to safety.
          The tiny screen above the keypad flickers to life. There's nothing on it at first, but then eight symbols appear in an octagonal pattern - the eight triagrams of the I-Ching. In the middle of this appears the Ying-Yang. And the voice which you heard earlier comes out of the speakers.
          "I suppose I should have mentioned. A few of the experiments are running... loose. You might want to be careful while trying to get in. As for the one on the floor... he's dead. The nanites are coded to break down any organic flesh they encounter, drawing on body heat for energy. I wouldn't touch him if your organic. They are quite contagious."
          Even as he speaks, Smitt's flesh shrivels, cracks, and reddish grey liquid seeps out of his orifices and the cracks in his skin.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio OOCs, "I almost made a hentai crack, you know."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Yesss, I think it would have been entertaining to sssee Crash eat fried rat."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "I understand roast rat is becoming a delicacy in central Africa. Is there any truth to that?"
Frequency c is now gagged.
"Holy SHIT! SERGEANT!" the guard nearest Smitt wails, scrambling away from the liquifying soldier. The rest of the unit, alerted by the yell, turns to glance at Smitt -- and then begin the mass stampede AWAY, especially as the 'quite contagious' bit from the speaker registers.
The sergeant, ever prosaic, takes one look at his dying man. He listens for a moment to the voice over the keypad. Then he unholsters his plasma rifle, turns it up to 'full yield', and shoots the unfortunate Smitt. Set phasers to 'deep fry'; goodbye, nanites. "All right, you mewling milksops," he growls. "This is war."
The sounds of heavy footsteps outside barely make their way through the thick blast doors, and the gaggle of voices from outside only quiet down when one very strident bark for order rides over the din. Bridgit, freshly back from her stint in San Angeles overseeing the rebuilding of the northern outskirts, has firmly taken control of a small squad of heavily armed SWAT troopers. They're slightly more beefed up than the usual SWAT teams, made up of human and Reploid alike. There is, however, only ten - and Bridgit herself, who is currently chambering up her .45 Brigadier pistol. Einstein stands at her side, snarling and growling at the door ferally.
"Wait," she mutters, holding up her hand at the silent soldiers. "If Einstein's actin' funky, there's bad *(&@ goin' down in there. See if there's another way in," she orders two of the soldiers before she stares at the door, frowning, and grumbling into her radio.
"What a day to be a Bioroid, eh? Good thing there's more life in a recently peeled banana than in this trunk," grumbled Terra Trunk, hopping in the air. He's pretty glad he brought that hat along now, all thing considered. He grumbles as he hears the sound of activity outside... "Oh, no, if that's Miss Cascio..."
"Oh, gross!!" Gale Sorcerer covers his eyes as Smith's body starts collapsing, becoming a nasty and not-too-pleasant-to-see-body, right after the voice speaks again. Still without looking, the mage begins speaking in his radio. "Someone, we need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..." Gale continues watching the sergeant and the rest of the guards, while he tries to speak. "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!" He than grabs Trunk by the arm. "We should get the hell away from here! And you should too!"-he yells at the sergeant. It's then when he turns to see Bridgit in the other side. Too late to run now.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I'm outside the labs. Now. Someone tell me in under a hundred words what the *(&@ is goin' on in there. -Now-."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Uh?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "We need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "The tentacle that attacked private Smitt contained nanites that ultra-necrotised his body."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Tentacle?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Tentacle."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey transmits, "Yes sir, Commander Sorcerer!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "He was then incinerated by the captain of the team... we have been warned several experiments are still active inside that lab!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "The tentacle did all that?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "yes, it was a tentacle!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Apparently."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "You'd better believe it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "we can't enter this place like scouts! We need a recon bot!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes sounds *just a little* skeptical. "Ah-huh. Okay. Try throwing it a Japanese schoolgirl. I'll round up some guards."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I got a SWAT team out here with me. I think one'r two of 'em are Reploids."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "haven't we got any metools for recon? Wait, no, I have an idea..."
Oannes arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Oannes has arrived.
          The camera over the door continues to pan back and forth silently. The goop smeared into the control panel appears to have killed the tentacles - at least, they're inactive now. The voice continue to issue out of the speaker as the plasma cannon flash-atomizes Smitt and remains.
          "Quick thinking, Sergeant. Well. It seems we're getting quite a party. I presume Director Abernathy is watching over linked helmet cams, or some such."
          There's a loud [KLUNK] from the door and a low humm as power is restored. Of course, with power restored, all the alarms for biocontamination and radiation alert start going nuts. With a hiss, the doors start to part.
          "Welcome to... my lab."
And who should show with Bridgit's SWAT troopers -- more, several seconds after the UNED director and her entourage appear on-scene -- but a certain Director of Interpol, with appropriate body armor of his own. And a command helmet. As their little demon had rightly surmised, he had been watching. It had just taken longer than he'd wanted to scramble the remaining troops.
Unholstering his own plasma pistol, Abernathy steps up to the SWAT team. " ... my, my. We're getting quite busy down here, aren't we?" he murmurs. He's angry.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the blast door and in the midst of Hell, the sergeant returns the plasma cannon to the equipment cart with a snarl. As his HUD begins to go crazy with the warnings registering on the cart's sensors, he calmly pulls out his oxymask and clicks it into place on his helmet. His voice, when he speaks next, is slightly muffled: "Break out the other cannons, boys, and get your masks on. Looks like we're going in. And you -- " His hand shoots out, landing on Gale's shoulder and hopefully pinning the cowardly RDI director in place. " -- Ain't going anywhere. We need someone who can deal with any #$@! that might pop outta that lab." Glancing toward Trunk, he adds: "You, too, log. We need people who can touch stuff without worrying about turning into a pile of quivering /goo/."
The soldiers try not to look toward the blackened husk that was Smitt. Most don't succeed. A few retching noises, muffled by masks, can be heard over the wailing of the alarms.
"Log, log? Oh, now that's just harsh," complained Terra Trunk, looking quite upset. For all of three seconds. "Actually, now that I think about it, I am sort of like a log. In general shape, at least. Still..."
He pokes his head in the doorway. Just out of curiosity. He does, however, gaze around with his enhanced sensory package, just making sure that there's nothing significant he should, you know, warn the gumbies about first. Sheesh, this is not how he wanted to spend his evening, I can tell you that.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey sounds a little harried when she next transmits, "Okay! I think I've got a lock on the signal in the labs, but it sounds like it's been -- " <sound of keys tapping madly> " -- bounced off a couple of satellites! It'll be a while before I can get the trace in, sir!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "damn!"
Bridgit Cascio grumbles quietly as a couple of the SWAT officers stiffen at the arrival of Abernathy. "Oh, relax, we got a job t'do, not be salutin' people," she snarls as Einstein continues his bevy of growling and hackle-raising. And then the alarms start their dirge. "Aw, Jesus - what'd these idiots let grow this time; their leftover lunches in th'back of the specimen fridge?" she growls as she looks towards the two SWATs sent off to look for a safe way to enter the labs properly. "An' what's all this about tentacles anyhow? They ain't makin' much sense in there."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "still try to locate it! try it at least"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Where's that little sugar-freak kid, Midi? Bet he could find it..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "he must be on a break. Geez, now of all moments..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] NIL, aka Signal Lark, transmits, "I don't know, ma'am! He hasn't logged in yet today! -- Hang on, I think I've got a proper trace ... "
Gale Sorcerer doesn't put on a mask of course, he's still a reploid even if he doesn't look like it at first sight. After listening to the sergeant's and everyone else's words, the mage shakes his head. "He said not to touch it if you're organic. Trunk is a bioroid... what we need is a rep..." He then looks around. He seems to be the only reploid around here, or probably the only one who would be sent in to peek. That doesn't sounds well. "we... need... er..." The mage eyes everyone behind him. "A hologram! Behold!" A snapping of fingers later, a small holographic insect appears in front of the RDI director's face and heads towards the barely opened doors to see what's inside the freaky lab. "Now, let's see..."
Gale Sorcerer projects a holographic image of A fly.
A fly has arrived.
          The interior of Lab 23 is dark, lit only by feebly flicking fluorescents. What those lights reveal is disgusting, disturbing and... well, the term 'carnage' sums it up fairly well. The back wall is dominated by large glass tanks, all shattered. Various liquids drip onto the floor from inside them. But of far more immediate interest are the lab assistants. Or what's left of them anyhow.
          In the very center of the room is an amalgamation of body parts, cybernetics, and weird machinery, all fused together. Screaming eyeless faces ring the top of it, features matching those of the personnel assigned to this laboratory. Limbs, both human and inhuman flail blindly at the fresh air coming through the door. The air itself is a miasmic haze, the source a set of odd plantlike things sitting against the left wall.
          The rest of the room is filled with computers equipment, esoteric surgical implements, and several 'work tables' covered in a variety of different types of gore. Overhead, a large screen flickers to life, projecting the Octo-Triagram surrounding the Ying-Yang in crimson red.
          "This rather... unfortunate being - Or group, whatever you want to call it, is the price my assistants paid for refusing to help me... continue with my work. I'm afraid I had to.. pick their brains. You'll be pleased to find, however, that they're all still quite helpful in my researches. It's not as though I need the brainstem - so I left that for you to play with."
Terra Trunk is not paying attention to the massive glob of people. Instead, he just noticed Gale's holo-fly, and he glares at it with some sort of look of horror.
"Watch out! It's another one of those beastly nanite things!"
His hat flips off, and an armature extends, holding a bright red flyswatter. Terra Trunk then proceeds to chase and furiously bat at the buzzing holo-fly.
"Good grief, this fellow's a tough one! Come on, have at you! Hoo ha!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "I think I have it! I think I've got the trace!!" A pause. "...Oh, dear. I guess not. Lost the slippery thing in the satellites." *sigh*
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer doesn't answer
Midi arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Midi has arrived.
Midi
"The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground..."
At first, you might not see him. As the average robot roaming the world is typically taller than the average human, anything much shorter than two meters tends to be ignored. If he gets your attention somehow, though, you may be so inclined to look down further and see ... a small Reploid.
This Reploid is humanoid, an oddity in and of itself. Another oddity is that he would probably aspire to be more than 4 feet tall -- as it is, he barely reaches 1.2 meters (approximately 4 feet) provided that he's standing up completely straight and really pulling on his internal hydrolics. His armor's color scheme is primarily green, with intermittent white trim. As he wears a helmet as well, he has a passing resemblance to Rock (... minus several feet, a buster weapon, most of the offensive and defensive power, etc).
One thing stands out about him, aside from his height -- he has pleasing features that could be said to be `cute'. He has large, inquisitive blue eyes that hold a certain innocence within them -- but also a significant intellect. He has a little button nose and a mouth that seems to be more often than not smiling for no apparent reason. His body language and behavior generate a certain charisma and friendliness, though he doesn't seem to be particularly outgoing.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice of Lab 23 crackles onto the channel. "Did you really think I'd make it easy to trace me?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "Captain Midi? Are you on-channel? Commander Sorcerer isn't responding to my tightbeams, and I can't get through the encryption on this signal -- " *gasp!*
The two SWAT officers return a few moments later to Bridgit, and report the labs are locked down fairly tightly save for the air vents, which are large enough for maintenance workers to crawl through... The woman scowls, and looks up - way up - at the vents visible outside. "Dammit. I can't get in there," she grouses before picking out the two Reploids present in the squad. "They were mutterin' somethin' about things bein' unhealthy in there, an' wantin' non-organic medics - I want you two t'go ahead an' see what's goin' on. The rest of us, let's find th' hazmat equipment room and suit up." A shaking and rattling of weaponry and light armor marks an assent, and the remaining troops round the corridor corner for the hazmat room, while the two Reploids boost each other up for the vent systems.
Bridgit sighs, watching the troops go past. "Dammit. I'm gettin' too old for this crap," she mutters, mostly to herself but easily overheard by Abernathy should he so choose. "What the hell were those idiots doin' in there anyway? I'm hearin' stuff about tentacles an' nanites an' who knows WHAT else! Ain't there limits on what they oughta be screwin' with?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Who the hell are you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice continues. "Ask Director Abernathy. I'm sure he's done some checking, and can answer that. Director?"
Oannes has disconnected.
Fortunately for everyone in the area near the poor mage, Gale Sorcerer is a robot with an internal partially based wind system. And it's all because of that why everything that was on his stomach doesn't jump out through his mouth after watching what was inside of the room. The emotionless holographic fly stands for a moment floating in the entrance of the laboratory before it just pops off into pixels. At that same time, the RDI director falls onto the ground over his knees holding his head. "BLARGH!!"-he just screams-"What the-! Oh gross!! This is gore... it's all... #$& gore! argh..." Unnoticing Trunk as he attempts to catch his fly, the mage just lies there rambling incoherently with a hand on his stomach.
Gale Sorcerer turns off his holographic projection of A fly.
A fly has left.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Someone better start givin' me a straight answer before I get really p***ed off."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, coldly: "Dr. Nathan Xiang, lately of United Nations employ. Why am I not surprised at this turn of events, Dr. Xiang?"
"At ease," the Director mutters to the same officers. No, Abernathy was not likely to get used to the whole military formality bit. He listens to Bri's plaints thoughtfully, though his attention seems to be elsewhere -- on the HUD of the command helmet, probably. Between tracking the video feed from the soldiers inside, and listening to the cross-talk on the radio, life was turning into quite a trip.
He seems about to reply as the SWATs return -- but instead waits from them to get their orders, listening to the chatter of the soldiers inside and commenting once or twice into his own radio feed.
"As far as I can tell," he finally replies to Bridgit's question, voice still calm with undertones of anger, "someone actually touched the doors, prompting some kind of nanite tentacle thing to attack. It dissolved him." He frowns at something caught over the radio, peering over Bridgit's shoulder at the troops departing for the hazmat room, before returning his attention to the datafeed.
The sergeant holds an arm out, keeping his troops back from the fatal door -- not that they need much encouragement not to go in there -- as Gale Sorcerer sends out the holofly to scout things out. Many of the men nervously check their weapons, pulling plasma and slugthrower rifles from their holsters and giving them thorough once-overs.
That activity ceases, however, as the sorcerer goes down. "C...Commander? Are you all right?" one of the privates asks, starting forward to help the RDI director up. A more prosaic thought occurs to the sergeant. "Let's get in there," he growls.
Almost as one, the soldiers go to work, one or two pausing long enough to watch Gale's demonstration with the fly -- before setting their jaws grimly behind oxymasks and pressing on into the lab. The equipment cart comes with them, as does the plasma cutter and rest of the weaponry. Only the appearance of the -- abomination -- in the middle of the floor checks their motion.
" ... holy God in heaven ... "
And, back outside the blast doors, Abernathy pales as the video feed flicks across his HUD.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... aw, *@!(ing /great/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "<sound of.. yawning> You guys woke me up, what time is it....? Wow, I go to take a nap and I sleep for hours. What's up?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer barf sound off. "...Dr. who?...uhg..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "I imagine I was on your list of scientists to clean out. But unlike some of my collegues, I plan ahead. As you can no doubt see."
Terra Trunk swaggers, and looks pretty pleased with himself.
"Crisis averted, folks, all in a day's work. Now, we-ooooh..."
Terra Trunk does pause as he looks inside the room, but his attention's not on the huge block of lab assistant in the middle of the room. He's actually not spectacularly phased by it. It could be his perpetual jolliness, or his slightly damaged mindframe, with bits of fungi growing into it- or it could be the fact he's got something of a one-track mind. In any case, his attention is now dedicated on those mist-producing plants in the side of the room. He metaphorically raises an eyebrow, and tries to take a closer look by scanning them.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy murmurs, through clenched teeth, "Quite well."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Nathan? Nathan, old bean! Dear me, what /have/ you been up to? This is pretty off the beaten path, even for you, you know!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Is something going on?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "argh! this is a bloody massacre!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Midi, you're finally there..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "I should say so. We've had tentacles and lots of sirens and weird mist-spraying plants and... yes, there is quite a massacre, too, but I'm doing my best to actually ignore that bit."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Um, sorry, I was up late last night working with some new security code. I went into sleep mode early this evening, guess I was out for too long."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "Captain Midi! I'm SO glad to hear you, sir! I need help tracing this signal so we can find evil, evil Dr. Xiang!! Before he does worse things!"
Bridgit Cascio doesn't have a HUD, the lucky woman. In fact, she doesn't have much of anything besides her uniform, her gun, her radio, and her dog, who is still staring at the door as if it's about to come to life and attack them... which apparently it already has done. The woman blinks a few times at Abernathy, surprised. "Seriously? Damn, glad I didn't get 'em to kick the damn thing down, then," she mutters as she hears the SWATs suiting up in the distance. "The hell is goin' on in there, an' the next question is how bad do I wanna know?"
In the vents, the two Reploid SWATs move through, clattering and thumping noisily, weapons and armor announcing their presence louder than a fanfare of trumpets.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "don't worry, Midi. I need you to help tracing that Dr. Lunatic, though"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Dr. Lunatic? Tracing him? What's going on again? What do you want me to do?"
          "Welcome, fine soldiers of the United Nations. And the director, who's quite likely watching through your helmets. Well, now that we're all here, I can give you all my final farewell."
          Terra Trunk analyzes the mist coming out of the plants - it's primarily a neurotoxin - botulus toxin, rendered into an airborne form. For some reason it's not affecting the amalgamation in the center of the room - which has turned its attention on the vibrations coming through the floor from the soldiers. In an explosion of pus and black lubricating fluid, eight legs burst out of its sides, and lift it off the floor and hurl it scuttling towards the squad at a surprisingly fast clip.
          And it's still screaming in pain as massive black jaws of iron gape open out of its sides like something envisioned by H.R. Giger.
          Oh, and the airborne toxin? It's got a lot of tiny bits of metal mixed in as well. Very tiny. Almost... nanoscopic.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "there's someone inside our UN frequency and also speaking through some speakers near the labs in Applied Sciences. I need you to help us locate where does the signal come from"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Find out where this freakjob's broadcastin' from, kid. He's apparently got the labs in a tizzy with somethin' disgustin'."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Oh is that all? Why didn't you say so sooner? Let me get on it...."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "You do realize I can hear you. I am, after all, a member of the United Nations research establishment."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Watch it! That mist is full of neural toxins!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "sorry if I can't think correctly! My stomach hurts a bit! *sarcasm*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "You should take some Pepto Bismol Mr. Gale."
Midi isn't in this room, but he's HERE, oh yes. The uber-hacker is a few floors above checking into this whole nasty situation, oh yes... beware coward! He lives!
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "don't think that'll help... I need a memory eraser...."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I don' give a *(&@ if you can see dead people, Doc. You ain't gonna be a member of the livin' for much longer if I got anythin' to say about it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "Ah. Ms. Cascio. You realize that the thought of seeing your happy smiling face at my arrest was one of the great motivators for my creativeness in thinking up surprises for you all, yes? Oh, and you might want to say a few final words to the Reploids in the vents."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "<hums a jolly little tune> Tracing, Tracing, Tracing an evil guy, doo doo doo doo, do doo doo doo doo.. found 'im. He's in Tartarus, ew."
"Be /careful/!" urges Terra Trunk, hopping up and down. "See those plants? They're creating an airborne neurotoxin... and I can pick up traces of metal within it too!"
The Trunk balks at the huge monster's attack, the vaguest inklings of the fact that he... being, as he is, half-dead and all might stand a pretty good chance of fighting this thing unaffected by the toxins. He can, of course, barely feel at all... something that Terra's not too keen to remind himself of.
"Looks like we've got a fight on our hands, well I don't have hands, but I've got a few tricks up my trunk to make up for them. Chocks away!"
Terra Trunk rumbles, and a barrage of ballistics spit from his tubular body- melons with fizzing wicks trailing from them, fired straight into the Alien rip-off's big fat ugly mouth!
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... you son of a... don't you even THINK of hurtin' them, you <trails into fervent obscenities>"
Thank heaven for little things like oxygen masks. Not that that was going to help much once the nanites get loose. Not that THAT is going to help much, given the abomination that's suddenly sprouted legs and begun charging the unit. The sergeant, ever focused, yanks the plasma cannon of the cart again, grins fiendishly, and opens fire with a roar on the thing.
The rest of the soldiers are not so fortunate. One or two faint dead away. Many of the rest lose complete sphincter control. Those still standing, and with their wits still about them, open fire along with the sergeant, bright blue and white plasma fire and bullets peppering the thing's necrotic flesh. A hail of literal death in the air -- but will it be enough?
Meanwhile, Abernathy makes an incoherent little noise in the back of his throat. He considers, for just a moment, shutting off the video feed -- but instead leaves it live, and recording. "I'll give you the details later, Lady Cascio," he murmurs -- before barking an order into his helmet radio. //Captain Midi! Lock that transmission /down/ before he can kill anything else!//
Midi, from a few floors above, responds //On it, it might take a sec... but I don't think it'll be a problem Mr. Abernathy.// And yay! Hooray for cruddy poses! What, it's not like Midi is THERE or anything.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Sorry Dr. Xiang or whoever you are. But I'm going to have to lock you out of here now."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "That's understandable. And expec...*zzzt*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "There we go..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "great work, Midi"
"@()!)* details!" Bridgit explodes as the radio crackles mockingly in her ear. She leaps upwards towards the vents, but her short stature and her bad leg make climbing out of the question. "GET OUT! GET OUT!" she all but screeches into the empty vent before she falls, her leg giving out on her finally; Einstein, whipped to a frenzy by his mistress's actions, imitates Bridgit by jumping and barking upwards, urgently. "DRIVER! HOPPER! GET OUT!" The rest of the SWAT team, meanwhile, come back from around the corner, decked out in hazmat gear and their guns in their hands.
"Hell, don't enter into that place!" Still on his knees, Gale Sorcerer looks up to see Trunk and everyone else near the doors. "This is probably a trap, we must get out of here and seal this place!" The mage's gaze searches then for the bioroid doctor. "Now where is..." The sorcerer gets up, his right hand still on his stomach. "Trunk, just get out of there!!"
          Plasma fire, exploding melons of doom, and a twisted monstrosity that would not be out of place in the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft. Putrid flesh and tubing explode from each would, revealing layer after layer of the stuff. The screams take on a more insitant note, but the energy fire does slow the thing down enough. At least, that's how it seems until whipwire tentacles lash out violently. Barbed, segmented, and tipped with monomolecular points, capable of shearing through... a great many things.
          "That's understandable. And expect..." The screen goes to static snow for a moment before clearing into the symbol of Dr. Xiang once again. "I recorded this ahead of time. With my feed shut off, the nano-dissasemblers in the air have now been activated. They'll take everything in this lab apart, molecule by molecule. Good day."
          As for in the vent? Well, one of them ALMOST tripped the wire for the high yield plasma field. But then Bridget's scream catches the attention of 'Driver'.
Driver pauses a moment, blinking ahead of him as the SWAT frequencies crackle busily, the officers yelling at each other. Very slowly, very carefully, Driver turns around to Hopper with a look of fear in his eyes. "Back. Up." With a wordless nod, looking stricken, the second Reploid begins the slow, laborious process of shimmying back out the vent. Bridgit, meanwhile, panting and hissing in pain from her now-throbbing leg, stares up at the vent hopefully, eyes wild as her fingers curl and dig into her faulty limb. "Comeoutcomeoutcomeout..." she repeats in a whispered mantra with her .45 pistol brought up to bear defensively on the vent entrance, while Einstein and the SWATs ring around the vent, teeth bared, guns ready and loaded. Whatever's coming out is going to be met in a hail of plasma and bullets, unless it's the other SWATs. Hopefully that's all it'll be.
"And here I thought they were just metal to clog the intake valves on those suits," noted Terra Trunk. He looks at the suddenly erupting monstrosity, and kicks up some debris at it.
"Let's see if I can't buy us some time. Terra... Fracture!"
This energy wave, primarily designed to shatter ground with slicing forcefields and tear it up in tsunami waves, before rearranging it all back in order, creates a mini-earthquake that does its best to topple that huge monster. Terra Trunk looks satisfied. And then feels a bit itchy.
"Well, that's odd."
Still itchy.
"You know, I haven't felt like this since that time with those termites... uh oh."
Five seconds later, a much less tubular and much smaller, spherical Terra Trunk-wearing that Met hat, he honestly looks like some sort of green, yellow-eyed Metool in clogs right now- dashes out of the room, venting clouds of spores everywhere. And jumping up and down and rolling around.
"Stop, drop and roll, by jingo! STOP, DROP AND ROLLLL!"
Midi is still in rooms above, well aware of what's going on, and what happened. He doesn't like making mistakes like that, he should have saw something like that coming. Bad hacker. Well now he needs to do something about that... searching the recent radio frequencies transmitted, he searches the codes that Xiang was transmitting. Ahh the virtual world, Midi can maneuver it with such ease, you'd be surprised. Locating and isolating Xiang's older signals is a cinch for the little guy. He begins scanning the codes for any command lines that would seem at all useful....... and one does indeed catch his eye. Self-termination protocol. Sounds like that would be worth a shot, for however many they would destroy...
His wizard hat held fiercely with both hands, Gale Sorcerer is still trying to calm down. Still trying to forget the vision he just sighted through his hologram. He fails. He glares towards Abernathy. "Haven't you heard? The whole lab's going to disintegrate with those disassemblers of his! We need to seal the entrances to that place and get out of here quickly!! Trunk, come out already!!" The mage is probably going to need more that a couple of teas to calm down after this. Hell, he's even cackling his teeth.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "I think I've isolated a protocol Xiang was using. I believe it might destroy at least some of those ... whatever is down there. I can't guarantee it will do too much, but I can give it a shot."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Do it, man, do it! I've lost more weight in ten seconds than I did after the Christmas holidays!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "it's nano-tech, which is machinery, so I guess we... right, do it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Right, it should only take half a sec...."
Could Abernathy get any paler, he would. As it is, the Director's shoulders tense; and only Bri's shouting serves to keep him from freezing up entirely. His attention snaps to the fore again, breathing ragged. He snaps off the HUD, pushing the helmet's eyepiece up out of his face as he listens to Xiang's last transmission. " ... der'mo," he murmurs, the tiniest flicker of rage and terror darting across his face. And that is all.
He turns, stalking away from the SWATs with a snapped order. "Once your men are out, make /bloody/ sure the vents are locked down," he snarls -- and heads to the hazmat room.
Lab 23 has completed its descent into hell. The sergeant is the first to die, ripped to shreds by a razor-edged tentacle even as he triggers the plasma cannon to overload. The explosion should be quite impressive. The rest of the unit can only hope to die with such dignity; a few are fleeing, armor and flesh alike already suffering from the nano-disassembler onslaught, but the rest ...
The rest die, crushed under the bulk of the rampaging beast, torn apart by the tentacles, or reduced to screaming, bleeding chunks of person-meat by the nanite onslaught.
And, from the hazmat room, the sound of a crash can be heard. Then silence. Then a series of obscenities in Russian. Then silence.
It appears someone found the emergency lockdown controls.
The few guards who escaped the room are the only ones who will survive this, should Midi's bypass actually shut the nanites down. The rest are trapped in that room, as the keening /wail/ of sirens cuts through the entire vault, making speaking impossible, ... and both vents and lab 23 disappear behind swift-closing blast doors.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Midi, you're my hero"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Gerroff me, you little nano-blighters!"
          Midi's signal does, in fact, do what he thinks it will. When it's transmitted, the nanites simply devour themselves, purging the infected of their destructive taint. Terra's final attack gives the last few members of the squad time to make it out before the blast doors seal Lab 23.
          Which has become a tomb. The screen next to the door flickers once, the symbol of Xiang appearing once more. "Consider this... my resignation. I think I'll work for myself for a while. Good day, Interpol."
          And all that remains is the octo-triagram surrounding the Ying-Yang, in burning blood red on a black field. And then even that becomes static snow.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Umm... thanks?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "So... is everyone ok?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "uh... more or less. Trunk? Director? Everyone?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "oh, right, the forensics won't probably be necessary after all..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "we need incinerators instead"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy sounds ... tired. "... Commander Sorcerer, see if you can't induce the rest of Sergeant Galeni's men to get some medical attention. I trust that Captain Midi did manage to shut down the nanites?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "...Forensics?"
The thundering clatter of noise that announces the return of the SWATs from the vent to hell causes the waiting soldiers to tense. Even Bridgit, propped up against the wall, teeth grit and bared against the throbbing fire in her leg, her gun drawn and aimed, finger twitching on the trigger, looks worried. And then two black legs stick out from the vent, which draws a sigh of relief from all of them watching anxiously. "Hopper," the woman breathes, looking almost thankful for a moment before turning her head towards the hazmat-wearing soldiers. "Lock down the godd*mn vents NOW! Seal 'em off to the one lab, in out and backwards! I don't want anythin' leavin' that room through the vents, got it?" she barks, eyes flashing, as Einstein pads closer to her, looking worried with his liquid brown eyes.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "I'm pretty sure I did Mr. Abernathy... I'm not detecting any more movement."
There is only one advantage to getting a good amount of your moldering, rotten-wood body getting eaten by nanites, as Terra Trunk might find out as he waddles down the corridor and into Bridgit's group at a fair clip. He's been trimmed down to just about Fliptop-Size by those nano-dissasemblers, a fearfully thin shell of organic matter cladding his mechanical core. He'll need a hefty deal of growth hormones to grow himself back to normal size, for sure. At least, though, like this, wearing his dishevelled Met Hat, his Vivi-optics looking pretty despondent, his clogs whittled down to little wooden bootees.
You know, if he squint, he looks pretty snuggly-adorable. Someone give the Bioroid a hug, he needs it.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "the only medic I've got here is Trunk, director, and I don't think he's doing too well. I can check the robotic ones, though."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "I could use a hug."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Jesus Murphy. I'm almost thinkin' we oughta pour concrete into the whole damn lab complex. (@*&ing science types, gonna wreck the world mutter mutter...<trails off into muttered obscenities>"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "I said not to enter!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "I could really use a hug."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Um, well I traced him to Tartarus earlier. I don't know if that does us any good..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Oh, medical attention, yes, of course! How could I have been so selfish? I'll get right on it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "Believe me, captain, it will. It will. Get damage control down here; we'll need to see what we can retrieve from the lab."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "Oh, and see to it we change our frequencies, soon. This one is compromised."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer sighs
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Mr. Abernathy, sir? Permission to examine the plants that were distributing the neurological toxin and dissassembler nanites at a later date?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "If there's enough of them left to examine ... permission granted. Try not to reactivate them."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Thank-you, sir. Perhaps I might be able to extract some good from this after all..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio grunts. "Doubt that."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Oh, I'll have a good whack at it."
The poor unlucky RDI director just drops his whole body onto the ground, getting sit back on the ground, and trying to see who needs any of his help before getting up again. This has been a way too long day. And everything he just wanted to do was to do his work, finish his holograms at once and go to sleep. Sleep, yes... he'll definitely go to sleep as soon as he can. Hopefully he'll find enough tranquilizers in the shops not to have any kind of nightmares about this. Yes...
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "Give him the benefit of the doubt, Lady Cascio. Enough men died for it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "'S'why I'm doubtful. But yer the boss."
Midi has disconnected.
Bridgit Cascio sighs as she struggles up to her feet as the SWAT team commences their lockdown procedures, scrambling left and right in their predetermined patterns as they've been drilled over and over to do. Limping, Bridgit and Einstein make their way back out of the Vault - there's nothing they can specifically do now. It's up to the science types to look after it, while the enforcement types simply make sure that it never happens again.
From the direction of the hazmat room, there's another clattering 'crunch', before Abernathy limps back. His face is that same impassive mask again. Flipping the helmet's visor back down, he leans against a wall to take in the fallout and initial damage reports of the operation ... and all the while, ignore the SWATs scampering around the facility. This was going to be ... very interesting.
Bridgit Cascio enters the UN HQ - The Vault.
Bridgit Cascio has left.
There are still people injured and, even though he's one of them, Terra Trunk has a duty to fulfill to the injured. He starts growing smaller plants than his usual, but ones just as potent, to heal the wounded who were hurt by nanites, monsters or what-have-you. Later today, he'll drag what remains of those plants back to his labs, and take a nice, long soak in some growth formula... possibly Baby Bio... to restore himself. For now, it's back to work...
</lj-cut>
All in all, the relationship between Xiang and Abernathy is shaping up to be a very fine--and very antagonistic--one.
I'm pleased.
facelessmuss
<lj-cut text="'Welcome to... my lab.'">
Title: Into Hell
Date: 08 February 2003
Players: Abernathy (logging), Bridgit Cascio, Gale Sorcerer, Dr. Nathan Xiang, Midi, Terra Trunk
Summary: When Dr. Nathan Xiang begins taunting Interpol over radio over their 'oversight' of his ruined lab, the UN Enforcement Division and RDI spring into action. Unfortunately, they get much more than they bargained for...
UN HQ - Applied Sciences
Gate's Lab [GL]
[S]outh leads to UN HQ - The Vault.
----Abernathy----
There is something unfinished about this man, a sort of loose ranginess that most young humans evince at some point in their lives. On many people, it lends an air of awkwardness, but he wears the look like a set of well-fitting clothes: comfortable and almost elegant. This grace of carriage nearly serves to erase the pronounced limp he walks with, minimizing it to a peripheral flaw.
His thin build--muscular, but still distinctly ectomorphic--serves only as an accent to the deceptive appearance of a kid in his teens. Combined with the lean lines of his face, it creates an overall appearance of effeminateness, an appearance helped by the black makeup--lipstick, eyeshadow--he wears.
An albino, his coloration is stereotypical of that disorder: Skin and hair both white and nearly translucent in the proper light, eyes a pale, unnatural pink. His attire--primarily black, from collared shirt and greatcoat, to slacks and steel-toed boots--seems a calculated effect, rendering him positively spectral. A single lapel pin, the blue-and-silver emblem of the United Nations, breaks up the unrelieved darkness of the outfit.
The details of his appearance lend him a roguish mien, from the gel-spiked hair to the small silver ring in his pierced left ear. A pair of round-framed sunglasses--more functional than affectation, given his disorder--are perched on his nose, hiding his eyes and lending him an enigmatic touch appropriate to his position.
----Director General of Interpol----
Dr. Nathan Xiang arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Dr. Nathan Xiang has arrived.
Dr. Nathan Xiang
Dr. Nathan Xiang is a man in his mid 30's, early 40's. He's of Chinese descent, and stands about five foot five. Generally dressed in a labcoat that starts out clean, and ends up more than a little stained by the end of the day. Dark brown/black hair cut short fails to cover up the cables and conduits leading into sockets set into his skull. The cables lead down into his shoulders and spine. A few other cybernetic 'additions' give odd lumps to his back and upper arms. Otherwise he's mostly wiry. He wears a pair of glasses that obscure his eyes and cover the upper part of his face.
Terra Trunk arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Terra Trunk has arrived.
Terra Trunk
Terra Trunk looks fairly different today. Rather than a walking waste paper basket, his body is surprisingly round and spherical, and although it still has the slimy, rough appearance of rotting wood it's not tubular. His eyes still stare out from holes in the wood, with Vile-style darkness effect, and he's still wearing clogs... and a pale orange Metool Helmet, complete with cross and stripe round the back. You know, from a distance, he kind of looks like a big, fat Met, as a matter of fact.
Gale Sorcerer arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Gale Sorcerer has arrived.
Gale Sorcerer
Gale Sorcerer could look like a normal young human, if it wouldn't be by two obvious facts: his outfit makes him look like an ancient magician, and you can see and feel wind flowing around him. Behind the dark hair that covers some of his face, and also falls down his back, Gale Sorcerer usually has a calm look. On his head, he carries a big grey wizard hat that could keep his face in shadows whenever he'd want.
A big dark green cloak that reaches his feet covers most of his body when wind isn't moving it. The cloak is held by two golden shoulder-straps united by a golden chain. Under it, you can hardly see his wide dark blue outfit and brown boots.In his hands he wears a pair of brown gloves, where some kind of resorts can be seen, revealing he isn't a human.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] There is a crackle of static across the radio. "So. You still haven't noticed, have you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Eh, what?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, warily: "Noticed what, praytell?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The unidentified speaker continues, "When was the last time you heard anything from Vault lab 23? Don't you think it a bit... strange? No reports. No requests for equipment or supplies. Tch. I'm rather... disappointed."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "oh, no! not the damn cockroaches again!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy can be heard swearing quietly in the background.
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "Commander Sorcerer. Get Private Trunk and meet me in the applied sciences area of the Vault. /Now/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Well, you never hear much of a request from Vault lab 63 either, but that's mine and I do most of my equipment and supply shopping myself, so you could assume..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The speaker is silent for a moment. "No. Not the cockroaches. Tch. You didn't even wonder why no-one has seen or heard from my lab assistants, either. So sloppy. Of course, I did take certain steps..."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "now? sigh, oh, well, okay..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Something up, Mr. Abernathy? Hmmm... do I know you, mysterious sir?"
[Radio] You send Gale Sorcerer a direct message: "[frostily] That's an order, commander. I don't care if it 'inconveniences' you."
Gale Sorcerer sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "yes, yes, no problem. I'm already in there right now anyway..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice replies, "No. I don't think you do. I took steps in that regard. Most of the people who know who I am... well, you'll see. I'm waiting." The signal breaks apart into static again, and then cuts out.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, antic: "Oh, quite possibly, private. Quite possibly."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Most unusual. You hang on, I'm coming down there myself..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "this sounds like either a joke or a bad horror movie"
*rapparapparapparappa*
The sound of what appears to be a midget in clogs skipping down a metal hall can be heard from outside, as the UN's most accomplished eccentric slab of rotting wood curiously makes his way down to the 23rd lab. He's wearing a Met hat that fits him pretty well, too. Must be something to do with Gale's 'horror movie' comment... well, never hurts to take precautions...
The clatter of several booted feet on concrete can be heard from the 'main' section of the vault, presaging the arrival of several riot-armored UNED guards. It looks like someone /had/ actually noticed the lack of response from Lab 23, and decided to think of the radio transmissions as a little more serious than someone trying to play a practical joke.
You could never be too cautious, after all.
          The doors to Vault 23 are currently silent, immobile and unresponsive. The keypad next to the door is dark, apparently without power. All of the activity seems to affect these unmoving monoliths not a whit, as they remain silent, and immobile.
Walking annoyed towards the entrance doors of the UN Applied Sciences, the shape of the young RDI director can be seen going through the inside of that very same part of the building, while putting a CD-ROM back into its case and into his pocket. Grumbling a bit, Gale Sorcerer adjusts his wizard hat and opens the door, awaiting both his boss, Dr. Trunk, and anything else that's coming. "It's always the same, hmpf. I take some time in Applied Sciences to work on some holograms, and then they need me for something. Geez..."
"Well, Gale, it's a moth if it's an egg on a leaf, it seems," noted Terra Trunk, staring up at the newly arrived group of armed guards. "A little spooky, don't you think? But surely this is a little over the top, perhaps?"
          The doors to the Lab continue to just... well, be doors. It's amazing, really.
Right on the clogged heels of Terra Trunk, the guards arrive at the door to Lab 23. Their commander frowns, under his riot helmet, as he notes the dead keypad. "Looks like we're going to have to force the door, boys," he mutters, gruffly. "Somebody get the plasma cutter up here!" Pausing, he glances over at the two scientists ... and smirks. "Whatever it is, it ain't funny. Don't get in the way, you two."
          Over the door, a tiny little red light flickers to life. If anyone happens to glance that direction, they might noticed the monitor camera has come to life. Theoretically, this allows the people in the lab to check and see who's outside, and open the doors for them.
"Trunk, why have you put on that metool..." Gale Sorcerer points at the bioroid's would-be head, stopping right when the guards arrive and start trying to open the doors. "Uh, nevermind..." He then stares at his watch, then at the guards again. "Fortunately I was on the computers of the entrance of Applied Sciences, it could have taken me a while to come in here. So, I presume tha-" The eyes of the mage blink for a moment before going all big and giving Trunk a worried look. "What is that... oh, right, the monitor camera...."- Gale scratches his hat a bit-"This place gives me the creeps, it almost looks like one of those modern horror movies. Well, how can we open this?"
"Apparently, they're hauling in some sort of plasma cutter," replied Terra Trunk matter-of-factly. He looks up at the camera and does his best to just look gleefully at it, since he can't smile or wave or anything. "Modern horror films? Can't say I can relate, sadly. More a fan of the theatre, myself... In any case, we'd better stand back if they intend to get rough."
The guards, being guards, and not specifically trained on modern horror movies, do not immediately note the security light. This is likely because they're ignoring the scientists now, in the interest of getting the plasma cutter set up to use on the doors. One enterprising soldier -- attempting to be funny -- moves forward to knock on one of the door panels. "Yo! Open up in there!"
A couple of nervous snickers arise from the detail. The sergeant frowns. "Don't be a dumbass, Smitt. Get back here and help with the cutter," he barks, compelling instant obedience.
Horror movie? More like Aliens.
          Poor Smitt. He knocked on the doors. In response to the vibrations, the nano-mites that had been seeded in the door respond with rather surprising alacrity. Wires erupt out of the 'dead' keypad, blindly seeking the source of the vibrations. Curling and twisting together into tentacles of mechanical origin, they lash out, seeking to burrow into flesh or machine in their path.
          Of course, the nanites only have stored power for a few seconds of activity... but is that too long for Smitt?
"By thunder, watch it!" shouted Terra Trunk, and his Methat flips off as a large, purple mushroom is spat from his trunk, in an attempt to whack the sudden attack of nano-tentacles.
"It looks to me as if we're getting ourselves into a whole lot more than we bargained for, chaps! Look sharp and keep on your toes, we might be heading for trouble!"
"Not that I'm a fan of those, of course."-replies Gale to Trunk while he stands back to let the guards work-"Just that it's too typical: Thought-to-be-abandoned machinery that begins working, dark places where you can't get any help from, all the NPCs dying... oops.." The mage adjusts his hat again. Now all the thoughts about Raccoon City are coming back to his mind. And it took him all that time to try to forget those, sigh... "Anyway, let's let them work for now. They don't seem like they are enjoying our presence here too much... I wonder who- ARgh!" Screaming frenetically and jumping backwards at the sight regarding tentacles, plain, and NPCK attempt. "We need heavy machinery! I'm not going to die here!!!" Well, but they never get heavy machinery in horror movies. Or do they?
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "I love New York. They have the bessst food."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Some nameless UNED sergeant swears loudly. "F***! SHOOT THAT THING!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "with what? with wind? *sarcasm*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... do I even WANNA know what the flying **** is goin' on?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "some #%$@ security device activated and attacked a guard here!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Can't find ratsss bigger anywhere elssse."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio sighs. "You guys're /so/ lucky I'm comin' back from San An t'night..." [ch-CHAK]
It might just be.
A scream erupts from the unfortunate Smitt, the horrified soldier backpedaling away from the mechanical tentacle that's reaching for him. The scream turns into a liquid burble as the tentacle, not quite diverted from its aims by Trunk's attempted intervention, burrows into his chest. He slumps, a horrified look blossoming on his face as the nano-mites finally die.
The sergeant swears into his radio, whipping out his sidearm and shooting at the dying tentacle in a crazed, spinal reflex. The rest of the guards look horrified. One makes an abortive start toward Smitt, now lying in a puddle of his own blood and gurgling on the floor, but draws up short at the sight of the still-thrashing tentacle. Turning, he points at Trunk. "Y ... you! R-reploid! You m-move him! It can't kill you!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Please. Do you think anyone truly want to hear about your eating habits?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "I....do..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Let me possse you another quessstion... Do I care if anyone wantsss to know about my eating habitsss?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Now, where's th' fire? I gotcher fire extinguisher right here... [sound of a gun being cocked]"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Why do YOU want to know, human?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, unamused: "... Shall I scramble a squad with bigger weapons?"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "'Cuz...bored..."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "And wanna piss off Doppler"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "With all due respect, Miss Cascio, I think you should stay put. We're under attack from quite a potent metal tentacle that's badly wounded one man within a few seconds of it appearance!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "the vault! in applied sciences, lab 23. Bring someone experienced and well equipped before someone gets killed!"
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "They have big roboratsss. I caught a normal rat yesssterday, and Plant wasss going to cook it up for Crash Man to eat. Unfortunately, Roll'sss cat ssstole it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I ain't afraid of some metal reject. I'll be there in a couple minutes with a squad."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "Ah, the esteemed musician. *sarcasm* And what do I the owe the honor of your attention?"
Bridgit Cascio arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Bridgit Cascio has arrived.
Bridgit Cascio
Nearing 45 years of age, this particular female human stands a proud if not short 5'5". The diminutive woman shows her age gracefully, gray mingled in the coppery hair at the temples and bangs. Small wrinkles at the sides of her emerald green eyes, which flash like fire when the mood takes her, reflect years of squinting into too many searchlights and working too many late patrols. Freckles dot across her cheekbones and nose, which carries a pair of silver wire-rimmed glasses on them easily. Her hands are never still, and tend to have something in them -- coffee cup, usually, or a mechanic's wrench. Her face is set in a determined near-scowl which appears to be permanent.
Wearing the everyday uniform is much less a trial for Bridgit, and she carries it well. The jacket is two-toned: a vest-like component of orange-tan edged in black, matched up with slate blue sleeves. The neckline of the jacket is cut away substantially, and underneath she wears a light cyan-coloured shirt and a black tie. The shirt's collar tabs carry small silver rectangles to demarcate her rank, with larger ones on either side of her jacket's lapels.
The jacket is cinched shut around waist with a wide brown leather belt, the silver buckle engraved with the UN insignia. Her pants are the same slate blue as her jacket sleeves, and neatly creased down the centre, brushing the tops of her highly polished black boots. Neat as a pin, and everything in order: this is Bridgit Cascio to the letter.
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Daryn transmits, "That thieving Tango! *a pause* What?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy mutters something about the squad not being teenage girls in fukus.
Terra Trunk pauses to consider this for a second. "Hrrrmm... you know something, you're probably right, actually. Let's see if I can't gum that blighter up, first though!"
Terra Trunk's hat pirouettes as he shoots another mushroom, and this one explodes into a splatter of spores and goo to try and coat the tentacle at its base. Terra Trunk scatters some seeds around Smitt, which quickly knit together into some sort of nanite stretcher, made of interknitted vines that start to wriggle away with its injured passenger to safety.
          The tiny screen above the keypad flickers to life. There's nothing on it at first, but then eight symbols appear in an octagonal pattern - the eight triagrams of the I-Ching. In the middle of this appears the Ying-Yang. And the voice which you heard earlier comes out of the speakers.
          "I suppose I should have mentioned. A few of the experiments are running... loose. You might want to be careful while trying to get in. As for the one on the floor... he's dead. The nanites are coded to break down any organic flesh they encounter, drawing on body heat for energy. I wouldn't touch him if your organic. They are quite contagious."
          Even as he speaks, Smitt's flesh shrivels, cracks, and reddish grey liquid seeps out of his orifices and the cracks in his skin.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio OOCs, "I almost made a hentai crack, you know."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Snake Man transmits, "Yesss, I think it would have been entertaining to sssee Crash eat fried rat."
[Radio: (C) Globalcrack] Dr. Doppler transmits, "I understand roast rat is becoming a delicacy in central Africa. Is there any truth to that?"
Frequency c is now gagged.
"Holy SHIT! SERGEANT!" the guard nearest Smitt wails, scrambling away from the liquifying soldier. The rest of the unit, alerted by the yell, turns to glance at Smitt -- and then begin the mass stampede AWAY, especially as the 'quite contagious' bit from the speaker registers.
The sergeant, ever prosaic, takes one look at his dying man. He listens for a moment to the voice over the keypad. Then he unholsters his plasma rifle, turns it up to 'full yield', and shoots the unfortunate Smitt. Set phasers to 'deep fry'; goodbye, nanites. "All right, you mewling milksops," he growls. "This is war."
The sounds of heavy footsteps outside barely make their way through the thick blast doors, and the gaggle of voices from outside only quiet down when one very strident bark for order rides over the din. Bridgit, freshly back from her stint in San Angeles overseeing the rebuilding of the northern outskirts, has firmly taken control of a small squad of heavily armed SWAT troopers. They're slightly more beefed up than the usual SWAT teams, made up of human and Reploid alike. There is, however, only ten - and Bridgit herself, who is currently chambering up her .45 Brigadier pistol. Einstein stands at her side, snarling and growling at the door ferally.
"Wait," she mutters, holding up her hand at the silent soldiers. "If Einstein's actin' funky, there's bad *(&@ goin' down in there. See if there's another way in," she orders two of the soldiers before she stares at the door, frowning, and grumbling into her radio.
"What a day to be a Bioroid, eh? Good thing there's more life in a recently peeled banana than in this trunk," grumbled Terra Trunk, hopping in the air. He's pretty glad he brought that hat along now, all thing considered. He grumbles as he hears the sound of activity outside... "Oh, no, if that's Miss Cascio..."
"Oh, gross!!" Gale Sorcerer covers his eyes as Smith's body starts collapsing, becoming a nasty and not-too-pleasant-to-see-body, right after the voice speaks again. Still without looking, the mage begins speaking in his radio. "Someone, we need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..." Gale continues watching the sergeant and the rest of the guards, while he tries to speak. "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!" He than grabs Trunk by the arm. "We should get the hell away from here! And you should too!"-he yells at the sergeant. It's then when he turns to see Bridgit in the other side. Too late to run now.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I'm outside the labs. Now. Someone tell me in under a hundred words what the *(&@ is goin' on in there. -Now-."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Uh?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "We need a forensic medic here... a non-organic medic if possible. And..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "The tentacle that attacked private Smitt contained nanites that ultra-necrotised his body."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Anyone in intelligence, locate who's interfering with our frequencies and using the speakers in the vault! Try also to open the doors of Lab 23 of Applied Sciences from there! And bring some backup!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "Tentacle?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Tentacle."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey transmits, "Yes sir, Commander Sorcerer!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "He was then incinerated by the captain of the team... we have been warned several experiments are still active inside that lab!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes transmits, "The tentacle did all that?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "yes, it was a tentacle!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Apparently."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "You'd better believe it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "we can't enter this place like scouts! We need a recon bot!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Oannes sounds *just a little* skeptical. "Ah-huh. Okay. Try throwing it a Japanese schoolgirl. I'll round up some guards."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I got a SWAT team out here with me. I think one'r two of 'em are Reploids."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "haven't we got any metools for recon? Wait, no, I have an idea..."
Oannes arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Oannes has arrived.
          The camera over the door continues to pan back and forth silently. The goop smeared into the control panel appears to have killed the tentacles - at least, they're inactive now. The voice continue to issue out of the speaker as the plasma cannon flash-atomizes Smitt and remains.
          "Quick thinking, Sergeant. Well. It seems we're getting quite a party. I presume Director Abernathy is watching over linked helmet cams, or some such."
          There's a loud [KLUNK] from the door and a low humm as power is restored. Of course, with power restored, all the alarms for biocontamination and radiation alert start going nuts. With a hiss, the doors start to part.
          "Welcome to... my lab."
And who should show with Bridgit's SWAT troopers -- more, several seconds after the UNED director and her entourage appear on-scene -- but a certain Director of Interpol, with appropriate body armor of his own. And a command helmet. As their little demon had rightly surmised, he had been watching. It had just taken longer than he'd wanted to scramble the remaining troops.
Unholstering his own plasma pistol, Abernathy steps up to the SWAT team. " ... my, my. We're getting quite busy down here, aren't we?" he murmurs. He's angry.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the blast door and in the midst of Hell, the sergeant returns the plasma cannon to the equipment cart with a snarl. As his HUD begins to go crazy with the warnings registering on the cart's sensors, he calmly pulls out his oxymask and clicks it into place on his helmet. His voice, when he speaks next, is slightly muffled: "Break out the other cannons, boys, and get your masks on. Looks like we're going in. And you -- " His hand shoots out, landing on Gale's shoulder and hopefully pinning the cowardly RDI director in place. " -- Ain't going anywhere. We need someone who can deal with any #$@! that might pop outta that lab." Glancing toward Trunk, he adds: "You, too, log. We need people who can touch stuff without worrying about turning into a pile of quivering /goo/."
The soldiers try not to look toward the blackened husk that was Smitt. Most don't succeed. A few retching noises, muffled by masks, can be heard over the wailing of the alarms.
"Log, log? Oh, now that's just harsh," complained Terra Trunk, looking quite upset. For all of three seconds. "Actually, now that I think about it, I am sort of like a log. In general shape, at least. Still..."
He pokes his head in the doorway. Just out of curiosity. He does, however, gaze around with his enhanced sensory package, just making sure that there's nothing significant he should, you know, warn the gumbies about first. Sheesh, this is not how he wanted to spend his evening, I can tell you that.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Nameless Intelligence Lackey sounds a little harried when she next transmits, "Okay! I think I've got a lock on the signal in the labs, but it sounds like it's been -- " <sound of keys tapping madly> " -- bounced off a couple of satellites! It'll be a while before I can get the trace in, sir!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "damn!"
Bridgit Cascio grumbles quietly as a couple of the SWAT officers stiffen at the arrival of Abernathy. "Oh, relax, we got a job t'do, not be salutin' people," she snarls as Einstein continues his bevy of growling and hackle-raising. And then the alarms start their dirge. "Aw, Jesus - what'd these idiots let grow this time; their leftover lunches in th'back of the specimen fridge?" she growls as she looks towards the two SWATs sent off to look for a safe way to enter the labs properly. "An' what's all this about tentacles anyhow? They ain't makin' much sense in there."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "still try to locate it! try it at least"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Where's that little sugar-freak kid, Midi? Bet he could find it..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer transmits, "he must be on a break. Geez, now of all moments..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] NIL, aka Signal Lark, transmits, "I don't know, ma'am! He hasn't logged in yet today! -- Hang on, I think I've got a proper trace ... "
Gale Sorcerer doesn't put on a mask of course, he's still a reploid even if he doesn't look like it at first sight. After listening to the sergeant's and everyone else's words, the mage shakes his head. "He said not to touch it if you're organic. Trunk is a bioroid... what we need is a rep..." He then looks around. He seems to be the only reploid around here, or probably the only one who would be sent in to peek. That doesn't sounds well. "we... need... er..." The mage eyes everyone behind him. "A hologram! Behold!" A snapping of fingers later, a small holographic insect appears in front of the RDI director's face and heads towards the barely opened doors to see what's inside the freaky lab. "Now, let's see..."
Gale Sorcerer projects a holographic image of A fly.
A fly has arrived.
          The interior of Lab 23 is dark, lit only by feebly flicking fluorescents. What those lights reveal is disgusting, disturbing and... well, the term 'carnage' sums it up fairly well. The back wall is dominated by large glass tanks, all shattered. Various liquids drip onto the floor from inside them. But of far more immediate interest are the lab assistants. Or what's left of them anyhow.
          In the very center of the room is an amalgamation of body parts, cybernetics, and weird machinery, all fused together. Screaming eyeless faces ring the top of it, features matching those of the personnel assigned to this laboratory. Limbs, both human and inhuman flail blindly at the fresh air coming through the door. The air itself is a miasmic haze, the source a set of odd plantlike things sitting against the left wall.
          The rest of the room is filled with computers equipment, esoteric surgical implements, and several 'work tables' covered in a variety of different types of gore. Overhead, a large screen flickers to life, projecting the Octo-Triagram surrounding the Ying-Yang in crimson red.
          "This rather... unfortunate being - Or group, whatever you want to call it, is the price my assistants paid for refusing to help me... continue with my work. I'm afraid I had to.. pick their brains. You'll be pleased to find, however, that they're all still quite helpful in my researches. It's not as though I need the brainstem - so I left that for you to play with."
Terra Trunk is not paying attention to the massive glob of people. Instead, he just noticed Gale's holo-fly, and he glares at it with some sort of look of horror.
"Watch out! It's another one of those beastly nanite things!"
His hat flips off, and an armature extends, holding a bright red flyswatter. Terra Trunk then proceeds to chase and furiously bat at the buzzing holo-fly.
"Good grief, this fellow's a tough one! Come on, have at you! Hoo ha!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "I think I have it! I think I've got the trace!!" A pause. "...Oh, dear. I guess not. Lost the slippery thing in the satellites." *sigh*
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Gale Sorcerer doesn't answer
Midi arrives from the UN HQ - The Vault.
Midi has arrived.
Midi
"The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground..."
At first, you might not see him. As the average robot roaming the world is typically taller than the average human, anything much shorter than two meters tends to be ignored. If he gets your attention somehow, though, you may be so inclined to look down further and see ... a small Reploid.
This Reploid is humanoid, an oddity in and of itself. Another oddity is that he would probably aspire to be more than 4 feet tall -- as it is, he barely reaches 1.2 meters (approximately 4 feet) provided that he's standing up completely straight and really pulling on his internal hydrolics. His armor's color scheme is primarily green, with intermittent white trim. As he wears a helmet as well, he has a passing resemblance to Rock (... minus several feet, a buster weapon, most of the offensive and defensive power, etc).
One thing stands out about him, aside from his height -- he has pleasing features that could be said to be `cute'. He has large, inquisitive blue eyes that hold a certain innocence within them -- but also a significant intellect. He has a little button nose and a mouth that seems to be more often than not smiling for no apparent reason. His body language and behavior generate a certain charisma and friendliness, though he doesn't seem to be particularly outgoing.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice of Lab 23 crackles onto the channel. "Did you really think I'd make it easy to trace me?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "Captain Midi? Are you on-channel? Commander Sorcerer isn't responding to my tightbeams, and I can't get through the encryption on this signal -- " *gasp!*
The two SWAT officers return a few moments later to Bridgit, and report the labs are locked down fairly tightly save for the air vents, which are large enough for maintenance workers to crawl through... The woman scowls, and looks up - way up - at the vents visible outside. "Dammit. I can't get in there," she grouses before picking out the two Reploids present in the squad. "They were mutterin' somethin' about things bein' unhealthy in there, an' wantin' non-organic medics - I want you two t'go ahead an' see what's goin' on. The rest of us, let's find th' hazmat equipment room and suit up." A shaking and rattling of weaponry and light armor marks an assent, and the remaining troops round the corridor corner for the hazmat room, while the two Reploids boost each other up for the vent systems.
Bridgit sighs, watching the troops go past. "Dammit. I'm gettin' too old for this crap," she mutters, mostly to herself but easily overheard by Abernathy should he so choose. "What the hell were those idiots doin' in there anyway? I'm hearin' stuff about tentacles an' nanites an' who knows WHAT else! Ain't there limits on what they oughta be screwin' with?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Who the hell are you?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] The voice continues. "Ask Director Abernathy. I'm sure he's done some checking, and can answer that. Director?"
Oannes has disconnected.
Fortunately for everyone in the area near the poor mage, Gale Sorcerer is a robot with an internal partially based wind system. And it's all because of that why everything that was on his stomach doesn't jump out through his mouth after watching what was inside of the room. The emotionless holographic fly stands for a moment floating in the entrance of the laboratory before it just pops off into pixels. At that same time, the RDI director falls onto the ground over his knees holding his head. "BLARGH!!"-he just screams-"What the-! Oh gross!! This is gore... it's all... #$& gore! argh..." Unnoticing Trunk as he attempts to catch his fly, the mage just lies there rambling incoherently with a hand on his stomach.
Gale Sorcerer turns off his holographic projection of A fly.
A fly has left.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Someone better start givin' me a straight answer before I get really p***ed off."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy, coldly: "Dr. Nathan Xiang, lately of United Nations employ. Why am I not surprised at this turn of events, Dr. Xiang?"
"At ease," the Director mutters to the same officers. No, Abernathy was not likely to get used to the whole military formality bit. He listens to Bri's plaints thoughtfully, though his attention seems to be elsewhere -- on the HUD of the command helmet, probably. Between tracking the video feed from the soldiers inside, and listening to the cross-talk on the radio, life was turning into quite a trip.
He seems about to reply as the SWATs return -- but instead waits from them to get their orders, listening to the chatter of the soldiers inside and commenting once or twice into his own radio feed.
"As far as I can tell," he finally replies to Bridgit's question, voice still calm with undertones of anger, "someone actually touched the doors, prompting some kind of nanite tentacle thing to attack. It dissolved him." He frowns at something caught over the radio, peering over Bridgit's shoulder at the troops departing for the hazmat room, before returning his attention to the datafeed.
The sergeant holds an arm out, keeping his troops back from the fatal door -- not that they need much encouragement not to go in there -- as Gale Sorcerer sends out the holofly to scout things out. Many of the men nervously check their weapons, pulling plasma and slugthrower rifles from their holsters and giving them thorough once-overs.
That activity ceases, however, as the sorcerer goes down. "C...Commander? Are you all right?" one of the privates asks, starting forward to help the RDI director up. A more prosaic thought occurs to the sergeant. "Let's get in there," he growls.
Almost as one, the soldiers go to work, one or two pausing long enough to watch Gale's demonstration with the fly -- before setting their jaws grimly behind oxymasks and pressing on into the lab. The equipment cart comes with them, as does the plasma cutter and rest of the weaponry. Only the appearance of the -- abomination -- in the middle of the floor checks their motion.
" ... holy God in heaven ... "
And, back outside the blast doors, Abernathy pales as the video feed flicks across his HUD.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... aw, *@!(ing /great/."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "<sound of.. yawning> You guys woke me up, what time is it....? Wow, I go to take a nap and I sleep for hours. What's up?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer barf sound off. "...Dr. who?...uhg..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "I imagine I was on your list of scientists to clean out. But unlike some of my collegues, I plan ahead. As you can no doubt see."
Terra Trunk swaggers, and looks pretty pleased with himself.
"Crisis averted, folks, all in a day's work. Now, we-ooooh..."
Terra Trunk does pause as he looks inside the room, but his attention's not on the huge block of lab assistant in the middle of the room. He's actually not spectacularly phased by it. It could be his perpetual jolliness, or his slightly damaged mindframe, with bits of fungi growing into it- or it could be the fact he's got something of a one-track mind. In any case, his attention is now dedicated on those mist-producing plants in the side of the room. He metaphorically raises an eyebrow, and tries to take a closer look by scanning them.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy murmurs, through clenched teeth, "Quite well."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Nathan? Nathan, old bean! Dear me, what /have/ you been up to? This is pretty off the beaten path, even for you, you know!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Is something going on?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "argh! this is a bloody massacre!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Midi, you're finally there..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "I should say so. We've had tentacles and lots of sirens and weird mist-spraying plants and... yes, there is quite a massacre, too, but I'm doing my best to actually ignore that bit."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Um, sorry, I was up late last night working with some new security code. I went into sleep mode early this evening, guess I was out for too long."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Signal Lark transmits, "Captain Midi! I'm SO glad to hear you, sir! I need help tracing this signal so we can find evil, evil Dr. Xiang!! Before he does worse things!"
Bridgit Cascio doesn't have a HUD, the lucky woman. In fact, she doesn't have much of anything besides her uniform, her gun, her radio, and her dog, who is still staring at the door as if it's about to come to life and attack them... which apparently it already has done. The woman blinks a few times at Abernathy, surprised. "Seriously? Damn, glad I didn't get 'em to kick the damn thing down, then," she mutters as she hears the SWATs suiting up in the distance. "The hell is goin' on in there, an' the next question is how bad do I wanna know?"
In the vents, the two Reploid SWATs move through, clattering and thumping noisily, weapons and armor announcing their presence louder than a fanfare of trumpets.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "don't worry, Midi. I need you to help tracing that Dr. Lunatic, though"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Dr. Lunatic? Tracing him? What's going on again? What do you want me to do?"
          "Welcome, fine soldiers of the United Nations. And the director, who's quite likely watching through your helmets. Well, now that we're all here, I can give you all my final farewell."
          Terra Trunk analyzes the mist coming out of the plants - it's primarily a neurotoxin - botulus toxin, rendered into an airborne form. For some reason it's not affecting the amalgamation in the center of the room - which has turned its attention on the vibrations coming through the floor from the soldiers. In an explosion of pus and black lubricating fluid, eight legs burst out of its sides, and lift it off the floor and hurl it scuttling towards the squad at a surprisingly fast clip.
          And it's still screaming in pain as massive black jaws of iron gape open out of its sides like something envisioned by H.R. Giger.
          Oh, and the airborne toxin? It's got a lot of tiny bits of metal mixed in as well. Very tiny. Almost... nanoscopic.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "there's someone inside our UN frequency and also speaking through some speakers near the labs in Applied Sciences. I need you to help us locate where does the signal come from"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Find out where this freakjob's broadcastin' from, kid. He's apparently got the labs in a tizzy with somethin' disgustin'."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Oh is that all? Why didn't you say so sooner? Let me get on it...."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "You do realize I can hear you. I am, after all, a member of the United Nations research establishment."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Watch it! That mist is full of neural toxins!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "sorry if I can't think correctly! My stomach hurts a bit! *sarcasm*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "You should take some Pepto Bismol Mr. Gale."
Midi isn't in this room, but he's HERE, oh yes. The uber-hacker is a few floors above checking into this whole nasty situation, oh yes... beware coward! He lives!
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "don't think that'll help... I need a memory eraser...."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "I don' give a *(&@ if you can see dead people, Doc. You ain't gonna be a member of the livin' for much longer if I got anythin' to say about it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "Ah. Ms. Cascio. You realize that the thought of seeing your happy smiling face at my arrest was one of the great motivators for my creativeness in thinking up surprises for you all, yes? Oh, and you might want to say a few final words to the Reploids in the vents."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "<hums a jolly little tune> Tracing, Tracing, Tracing an evil guy, doo doo doo doo, do doo doo doo doo.. found 'im. He's in Tartarus, ew."
"Be /careful/!" urges Terra Trunk, hopping up and down. "See those plants? They're creating an airborne neurotoxin... and I can pick up traces of metal within it too!"
The Trunk balks at the huge monster's attack, the vaguest inklings of the fact that he... being, as he is, half-dead and all might stand a pretty good chance of fighting this thing unaffected by the toxins. He can, of course, barely feel at all... something that Terra's not too keen to remind himself of.
"Looks like we've got a fight on our hands, well I don't have hands, but I've got a few tricks up my trunk to make up for them. Chocks away!"
Terra Trunk rumbles, and a barrage of ballistics spit from his tubular body- melons with fizzing wicks trailing from them, fired straight into the Alien rip-off's big fat ugly mouth!
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "... you son of a... don't you even THINK of hurtin' them, you <trails into fervent obscenities>"
Thank heaven for little things like oxygen masks. Not that that was going to help much once the nanites get loose. Not that THAT is going to help much, given the abomination that's suddenly sprouted legs and begun charging the unit. The sergeant, ever focused, yanks the plasma cannon of the cart again, grins fiendishly, and opens fire with a roar on the thing.
The rest of the soldiers are not so fortunate. One or two faint dead away. Many of the rest lose complete sphincter control. Those still standing, and with their wits still about them, open fire along with the sergeant, bright blue and white plasma fire and bullets peppering the thing's necrotic flesh. A hail of literal death in the air -- but will it be enough?
Meanwhile, Abernathy makes an incoherent little noise in the back of his throat. He considers, for just a moment, shutting off the video feed -- but instead leaves it live, and recording. "I'll give you the details later, Lady Cascio," he murmurs -- before barking an order into his helmet radio. //Captain Midi! Lock that transmission /down/ before he can kill anything else!//
Midi, from a few floors above, responds //On it, it might take a sec... but I don't think it'll be a problem Mr. Abernathy.// And yay! Hooray for cruddy poses! What, it's not like Midi is THERE or anything.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Sorry Dr. Xiang or whoever you are. But I'm going to have to lock you out of here now."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Dr. Nathan Xiang transmits, "That's understandable. And expec...*zzzt*"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "There we go..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "great work, Midi"
"@()!)* details!" Bridgit explodes as the radio crackles mockingly in her ear. She leaps upwards towards the vents, but her short stature and her bad leg make climbing out of the question. "GET OUT! GET OUT!" she all but screeches into the empty vent before she falls, her leg giving out on her finally; Einstein, whipped to a frenzy by his mistress's actions, imitates Bridgit by jumping and barking upwards, urgently. "DRIVER! HOPPER! GET OUT!" The rest of the SWAT team, meanwhile, come back from around the corner, decked out in hazmat gear and their guns in their hands.
"Hell, don't enter into that place!" Still on his knees, Gale Sorcerer looks up to see Trunk and everyone else near the doors. "This is probably a trap, we must get out of here and seal this place!" The mage's gaze searches then for the bioroid doctor. "Now where is..." The sorcerer gets up, his right hand still on his stomach. "Trunk, just get out of there!!"
          Plasma fire, exploding melons of doom, and a twisted monstrosity that would not be out of place in the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft. Putrid flesh and tubing explode from each would, revealing layer after layer of the stuff. The screams take on a more insitant note, but the energy fire does slow the thing down enough. At least, that's how it seems until whipwire tentacles lash out violently. Barbed, segmented, and tipped with monomolecular points, capable of shearing through... a great many things.
          "That's understandable. And expect..." The screen goes to static snow for a moment before clearing into the symbol of Dr. Xiang once again. "I recorded this ahead of time. With my feed shut off, the nano-dissasemblers in the air have now been activated. They'll take everything in this lab apart, molecule by molecule. Good day."
          As for in the vent? Well, one of them ALMOST tripped the wire for the high yield plasma field. But then Bridget's scream catches the attention of 'Driver'.
Driver pauses a moment, blinking ahead of him as the SWAT frequencies crackle busily, the officers yelling at each other. Very slowly, very carefully, Driver turns around to Hopper with a look of fear in his eyes. "Back. Up." With a wordless nod, looking stricken, the second Reploid begins the slow, laborious process of shimmying back out the vent. Bridgit, meanwhile, panting and hissing in pain from her now-throbbing leg, stares up at the vent hopefully, eyes wild as her fingers curl and dig into her faulty limb. "Comeoutcomeoutcomeout..." she repeats in a whispered mantra with her .45 pistol brought up to bear defensively on the vent entrance, while Einstein and the SWATs ring around the vent, teeth bared, guns ready and loaded. Whatever's coming out is going to be met in a hail of plasma and bullets, unless it's the other SWATs. Hopefully that's all it'll be.
"And here I thought they were just metal to clog the intake valves on those suits," noted Terra Trunk. He looks at the suddenly erupting monstrosity, and kicks up some debris at it.
"Let's see if I can't buy us some time. Terra... Fracture!"
This energy wave, primarily designed to shatter ground with slicing forcefields and tear it up in tsunami waves, before rearranging it all back in order, creates a mini-earthquake that does its best to topple that huge monster. Terra Trunk looks satisfied. And then feels a bit itchy.
"Well, that's odd."
Still itchy.
"You know, I haven't felt like this since that time with those termites... uh oh."
Five seconds later, a much less tubular and much smaller, spherical Terra Trunk-wearing that Met hat, he honestly looks like some sort of green, yellow-eyed Metool in clogs right now- dashes out of the room, venting clouds of spores everywhere. And jumping up and down and rolling around.
"Stop, drop and roll, by jingo! STOP, DROP AND ROLLLL!"
Midi is still in rooms above, well aware of what's going on, and what happened. He doesn't like making mistakes like that, he should have saw something like that coming. Bad hacker. Well now he needs to do something about that... searching the recent radio frequencies transmitted, he searches the codes that Xiang was transmitting. Ahh the virtual world, Midi can maneuver it with such ease, you'd be surprised. Locating and isolating Xiang's older signals is a cinch for the little guy. He begins scanning the codes for any command lines that would seem at all useful....... and one does indeed catch his eye. Self-termination protocol. Sounds like that would be worth a shot, for however many they would destroy...
His wizard hat held fiercely with both hands, Gale Sorcerer is still trying to calm down. Still trying to forget the vision he just sighted through his hologram. He fails. He glares towards Abernathy. "Haven't you heard? The whole lab's going to disintegrate with those disassemblers of his! We need to seal the entrances to that place and get out of here quickly!! Trunk, come out already!!" The mage is probably going to need more that a couple of teas to calm down after this. Hell, he's even cackling his teeth.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "I think I've isolated a protocol Xiang was using. I believe it might destroy at least some of those ... whatever is down there. I can't guarantee it will do too much, but I can give it a shot."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Do it, man, do it! I've lost more weight in ten seconds than I did after the Christmas holidays!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "it's nano-tech, which is machinery, so I guess we... right, do it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Right, it should only take half a sec...."
Could Abernathy get any paler, he would. As it is, the Director's shoulders tense; and only Bri's shouting serves to keep him from freezing up entirely. His attention snaps to the fore again, breathing ragged. He snaps off the HUD, pushing the helmet's eyepiece up out of his face as he listens to Xiang's last transmission. " ... der'mo," he murmurs, the tiniest flicker of rage and terror darting across his face. And that is all.
He turns, stalking away from the SWATs with a snapped order. "Once your men are out, make /bloody/ sure the vents are locked down," he snarls -- and heads to the hazmat room.
Lab 23 has completed its descent into hell. The sergeant is the first to die, ripped to shreds by a razor-edged tentacle even as he triggers the plasma cannon to overload. The explosion should be quite impressive. The rest of the unit can only hope to die with such dignity; a few are fleeing, armor and flesh alike already suffering from the nano-disassembler onslaught, but the rest ...
The rest die, crushed under the bulk of the rampaging beast, torn apart by the tentacles, or reduced to screaming, bleeding chunks of person-meat by the nanite onslaught.
And, from the hazmat room, the sound of a crash can be heard. Then silence. Then a series of obscenities in Russian. Then silence.
It appears someone found the emergency lockdown controls.
The few guards who escaped the room are the only ones who will survive this, should Midi's bypass actually shut the nanites down. The rest are trapped in that room, as the keening /wail/ of sirens cuts through the entire vault, making speaking impossible, ... and both vents and lab 23 disappear behind swift-closing blast doors.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "Midi, you're my hero"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Gerroff me, you little nano-blighters!"
          Midi's signal does, in fact, do what he thinks it will. When it's transmitted, the nanites simply devour themselves, purging the infected of their destructive taint. Terra's final attack gives the last few members of the squad time to make it out before the blast doors seal Lab 23.
          Which has become a tomb. The screen next to the door flickers once, the symbol of Xiang appearing once more. "Consider this... my resignation. I think I'll work for myself for a while. Good day, Interpol."
          And all that remains is the octo-triagram surrounding the Ying-Yang, in burning blood red on a black field. And then even that becomes static snow.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Umm... thanks?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "So... is everyone ok?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "uh... more or less. Trunk? Director? Everyone?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "oh, right, the forensics won't probably be necessary after all..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "we need incinerators instead"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy sounds ... tired. "... Commander Sorcerer, see if you can't induce the rest of Sergeant Galeni's men to get some medical attention. I trust that Captain Midi did manage to shut down the nanites?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "...Forensics?"
The thundering clatter of noise that announces the return of the SWATs from the vent to hell causes the waiting soldiers to tense. Even Bridgit, propped up against the wall, teeth grit and bared against the throbbing fire in her leg, her gun drawn and aimed, finger twitching on the trigger, looks worried. And then two black legs stick out from the vent, which draws a sigh of relief from all of them watching anxiously. "Hopper," the woman breathes, looking almost thankful for a moment before turning her head towards the hazmat-wearing soldiers. "Lock down the godd*mn vents NOW! Seal 'em off to the one lab, in out and backwards! I don't want anythin' leavin' that room through the vents, got it?" she barks, eyes flashing, as Einstein pads closer to her, looking worried with his liquid brown eyes.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "I'm pretty sure I did Mr. Abernathy... I'm not detecting any more movement."
There is only one advantage to getting a good amount of your moldering, rotten-wood body getting eaten by nanites, as Terra Trunk might find out as he waddles down the corridor and into Bridgit's group at a fair clip. He's been trimmed down to just about Fliptop-Size by those nano-dissasemblers, a fearfully thin shell of organic matter cladding his mechanical core. He'll need a hefty deal of growth hormones to grow himself back to normal size, for sure. At least, though, like this, wearing his dishevelled Met Hat, his Vivi-optics looking pretty despondent, his clogs whittled down to little wooden bootees.
You know, if he squint, he looks pretty snuggly-adorable. Someone give the Bioroid a hug, he needs it.
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "the only medic I've got here is Trunk, director, and I don't think he's doing too well. I can check the robotic ones, though."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "I could use a hug."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "Jesus Murphy. I'm almost thinkin' we oughta pour concrete into the whole damn lab complex. (@*&ing science types, gonna wreck the world mutter mutter...<trails off into muttered obscenities>"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer transmits, "I said not to enter!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "I could really use a hug."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Midi transmits, "Um, well I traced him to Tartarus earlier. I don't know if that does us any good..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Oh, medical attention, yes, of course! How could I have been so selfish? I'll get right on it!"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "Believe me, captain, it will. It will. Get damage control down here; we'll need to see what we can retrieve from the lab."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "Oh, and see to it we change our frequencies, soon. This one is compromised."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] RDI Wizard: Gale Sorcerer sighs
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Mr. Abernathy, sir? Permission to examine the plants that were distributing the neurological toxin and dissassembler nanites at a later date?"
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "If there's enough of them left to examine ... permission granted. Try not to reactivate them."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Thank-you, sir. Perhaps I might be able to extract some good from this after all..."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio grunts. "Doubt that."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Terra Trunk transmits, "Oh, I'll have a good whack at it."
The poor unlucky RDI director just drops his whole body onto the ground, getting sit back on the ground, and trying to see who needs any of his help before getting up again. This has been a way too long day. And everything he just wanted to do was to do his work, finish his holograms at once and go to sleep. Sleep, yes... he'll definitely go to sleep as soon as he can. Hopefully he'll find enough tranquilizers in the shops not to have any kind of nightmares about this. Yes...
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Abernathy transmits, "Give him the benefit of the doubt, Lady Cascio. Enough men died for it."
[Radio: (D) Interpolicious] Enforcer Princess: Bridgit Cascio transmits, "'S'why I'm doubtful. But yer the boss."
Midi has disconnected.
Bridgit Cascio sighs as she struggles up to her feet as the SWAT team commences their lockdown procedures, scrambling left and right in their predetermined patterns as they've been drilled over and over to do. Limping, Bridgit and Einstein make their way back out of the Vault - there's nothing they can specifically do now. It's up to the science types to look after it, while the enforcement types simply make sure that it never happens again.
From the direction of the hazmat room, there's another clattering 'crunch', before Abernathy limps back. His face is that same impassive mask again. Flipping the helmet's visor back down, he leans against a wall to take in the fallout and initial damage reports of the operation ... and all the while, ignore the SWATs scampering around the facility. This was going to be ... very interesting.
Bridgit Cascio enters the UN HQ - The Vault.
Bridgit Cascio has left.
There are still people injured and, even though he's one of them, Terra Trunk has a duty to fulfill to the injured. He starts growing smaller plants than his usual, but ones just as potent, to heal the wounded who were hurt by nanites, monsters or what-have-you. Later today, he'll drag what remains of those plants back to his labs, and take a nice, long soak in some growth formula... possibly Baby Bio... to restore himself. For now, it's back to work...
</lj-cut>
All in all, the relationship between Xiang and Abernathy is shaping up to be a very fine--and very antagonistic--one.
I'm pleased.
facelessmuss
