Jennifer8

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We're going to get out of here!

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It was the shock that woke Penny up.

It took some time to focus. Her head pounded and it felt like she had a huge lump: she was dizzy and felt rather ill. She couldn't remember what had happened, and didn't know where she was.

Another shock jolted her - it hurt but it helped her to focus. Her vision cleared. She was looking at an Eiledon.

His form brought back all the memories in a fell swoop. The last thing she could remember was being on board the train, heading for the surface. What had happened after that? She couldn't recall. Where were Erik and Harris? She didn't see them.

Good morning, said the Eiledon. She could have sworn it was smirking at her. She was restrained - her armor was locked into big cylindrical tubes attached to the ceiling and floor. She was scared - but of course he couldn't see that through the helmet. It's time we had a little talk?

"About fashion sense?" Her voice sounded bleary, but coherent. "Who designed that outfit, Frankenstein? No wait, must have been Vahzilok... same thing I suppose."

You are going to tell me all about the heroes who accompanied you when you attacked the Black Line. I have a few questions that weren't answered by Harris's ever so helpful notebook.

It came to Penny, all at once, that wherever Erik and Harris were, they certainly were not with the Vahzilok... or they would not be asking. Had they gotten out? There was no way to know - her radio was silent at that moment. Perhaps the earpiece had been smashed by the helmet, which was pressing against her skull oddly. The microphone, however, felt as if it was intact... even if she wasn't receiving, she could still, conceivably, be transmitting. Above all else, she knew that the Vahzilok must not know anything more than what they knew already. Her heart was pounding in her throat but she swallowed it.

"What heroes? What are you talking about?"

Lying? Oh come now... you should know better than that.

She couldn't see what the Eiledon did, but suddenly the air itself turned bright, acid green. This didn't bother the Eiledon in the least; she had just enough time to realize that this was a Luminous Eiledon, and this was a radiation chamber.

Then her skin was blistering, and she was aware of nothing except for her own screams.

The hero hadn't awoken in spite of Enid's best efforts, which she had to admit were limited anyway. But she turned when the door opened.

Another woman was thrust inside and then the door closed. She seemed as uncowed as Enid herself.

Enid crossed her arms. "Sarah Emmerson. Fancy meeting you here."

Sara ran her fingers through her hair. "Hi, Enid," she said reluctantly.

"What are you doing here?" Enid was torn between fury and disbelief. "If Harris had anything to do with this - "

"What, are you kidding? Of course he did," Sarah rolled her eyes. "Um... I was hoping to tip you off, actually. You know... about the Vahzilok." She gestured vaguely towards the closed door. "Attacking your house."

"I figured it out, thanks," she said dryly.

For a few minutes, the two women glowered at each other. Then Enid took a breath and held out her hand. "Well, hell, we're in this thing together now, we might as well call a truce... agreed?"

"Agreed," Sarah and Enid shook hands.

The door opened again, and a third woman was thrust through. She looked rather dazed. Enid and Sarah stared, and then Sarah abruptly did a double-take. "I don't believe it - Amy? "

"Yes..." She looked rather dazed, and was shaking. "These - these things..."

"Hey, take it easy," Sarah led her to the chair.

"I - I don't know where I am - I don't know what's going on..."

Sarah ran her hands through her hair. "Amy - I shouldn't be the one telling you all of this but - well... here's the scoop...."

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"So......Me and Crystal seem to be agreement. We should go and check out the Doc's house." He said clapping his hand together.

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Everyone in the room was shocked at Experiment's entrance and exit. "Um.... what just happened?" Crystal's voice came after Jack's in the stunned silence.

"The name-brand hero left," Jack's sarcastic voice sounded particularly annoyed. "Looks like it is up to us generic types."

"Some heroes are unstable," Em said. "I had planned to give everyone radios, but he left before they could be distributed. We don't have any way to get in touch with him... I suppose we will have to wait and see whether or not he returns. And Small Arms still hasn't responded... he may be dealing with some sort of situation himself. In the meantime, for the rest of you..." She handed out small devices. "I stopped by R&D on the way over. Apparantly they have had these radios waiting to be picked up for some time."

Conner looked at Martin. Martin looked innocent but said, "Aye, that they have."

"This," Em handed out radios to everyone, then held up a insect-like sphere, covered with lenses and antennae, the size of a tennis ball, which remained hovering in the air after she released it, "is an RRS or, Remote Relay Station. It has a pilot that flies it from the base of operations via a virtual-reality set of controls. As you can see, it is loaded with various equipment. Its main function is to act as a booster station for the signal of the earpieces. Mind you, they have a good range on their own. However, if you do end up going underground, the signal strength of the earpieces themselves might not be enough to reach back here. That is the job of the RRS: as long as it accompanies you, your signal shouldn't be lost, even if you go underground. The exception to that is shielded areas. The RRS isn't large enough to penetrate areas that have been deliberately shielded. Everyone with me so far?"

When she got nods, she continued. "Great. Now: The RRS has one big weakness - it's fragile. Mind you, it's small, and it's fast, and it does have some armament. It should be a job to hit it. But if it ever DOES get hit, especially by the sorts of hits superheroes normally take, it's toast. Try not to let that happen, OK, guys? This little baby cost more than most people make in a lifetime, and I don't want to have to explain to Davies - he's the research head - why it's sitting in a pile of parts somewhere. Which reminds me, if it ever DOES get hit, try and pick it up and bring it back so we could maybe repair it."

Em walked over to a console that had a pair of oversized gloves and a helmet attached to it with thick wires. "Let's do a test run before anyone goes anywhere, or at least a radio check." She put on the helmet and gloves and held out her hands: a moment later the RRS was zooming around their heads like some oversized dragonfly.

The radio check, when they did it, came back clear: everyone could hear each other's voice, and Em's voice also.

"Looks like that's good... everyone look through the rest of the equipment in that box there, and take whatever you think you need to scout with." In the box were a variety of gadgets such as light sticks. It clearly was not meant to be a box full of armament, but rather support gear.

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He became aware that his right hand was shaking and quickly grabbed it with his left, hoping the others had not noticed. He knew withdrawal when he saw it.

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It didn't look like anyone had. Em was letting Experiment 2.0 into the room, and Conner was gesturing him to a seat. Crystal had one of her hands over her eyes, the fingers stretching out to the temples, as if trying to brush away a momentary wave of confusion. Her hands also were shaking.

Unlike him, Crystal had absolutely no basis whatsoever for recognizing the probable onset of withdrawal. Likely that was part of the reason for the momentarily-confused look on her face. But then she put her hands down and clasped them together in her lap, and smiled at Experiment 2.0 as he sat down at the table. There was a hint of shadows around her eyes, just as he could feel shadows around his.

Jack could already tell.... it was going to be a very long day.

"Could we... I don't know, go to his house and look around? Or something? I mean, do we have any idea why they want him so badly? Vahz normally don't care if people are alive, and this didn't start until just a couple of days ago. Why all the sudden interest?"

Enid was taken to a room with a single large window, and a chair, and left there. Once left on her own she pulled her hands out of the ropes that the Vahz had insisted she wear: she had been working on them for some time. She discarded the rope, tossing it in a corner, then went to the window.

The room beyond was filled with technology. It was, itself, glassed in, and through the walls of that glassed in room she could see the room beyond it - she had never seen the core of a nuclear reactor before, but it didn't stop her from recognizing it when she saw it. At the center of the core was a tall pillar with what looked to be a flip top. It was dark, but it gave off an air of menace... the entire chamber did.

A mortificator and an abomination came into the glassed-in chamber. The abomination was carrying the unresisting form of a superhero. The abomination held her up, and the mortificator worked on restraints. Eventually she was suspended in the air, her arms and legs stretched out, forming a sort of an X. Then they left.

The superhero was dressed in a lightweight armor, and was female. She wore a helmet, one side of which had an enormous dent, almost to the point of being caved in, as if it had taken the brunt of some enormous impact. It looked like it had taken a direct hit from some sort of heavy weaponry, though Enid couldn't imagine what. The hero was completely limp and appeared to be unconscious - not surprising considering the knock to the head that they must have gotten. The armor looked very hard worn, as if it had seen a lot of battle recently, but it seemed to be mostly intact, and there were no other injuries that seemed to be obvious.

Enid allowed herself a small smile. Though she was a long way from being out of the woods, escape plans were already forming in her mind. It looked like the hero was fine, just knocked cold. Depending on the capabilities of that armor... well, she just might be getting out of here a little bit sooner than she would have otherwise.

Knowing that it wasn't likely to do any good, Enid stepped to the window anyway, tapping on it with a knuckle. "Can you hear me?" She said to the unconscious woman on the other side. "Hey! It's time to wake up now, try and focus, can you hear me?" She realized it might take the other woman some time to awaken, but they both seemed to have time, and so she kept rapping gently. "Come on now, rise and shine!"

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Edit
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Wanted to re-iterate that the series of posts with Enid Sanstad in them are simply "background" posts, covering the time when our heroes are planning and re-fitting themselves for the inevitable raid on the Vahzilok. The thread is on pause until Erik comes back. )

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Asking them to go check on a known superhero's family could be enough to trigger some unneeded epiphanies in the employees.


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"Actually," Em ventured (it seemed the right spot, since they were talking about employees with unneeded ephiphanies) "There is a police report regarding the home of Dr. Erik Sanstad, which is being treated as a crime scene at the moment. It's not too torn up structurally, but there was clearly a fight - there are some dead Vahzilok and it looks like there was an explosion. However, there were no deaths, unless you count the Vahz... I wouldn't, since they start out dead to begin with. Enid and Cassie Sanstad are currently listed as missing."

Conner looked at her in surprise, and that pleased her. Anything less would have been incomplete information, and if there was one thing Em could not stand, it was incomplete information.

((OOC: Erik is out of town for the moment, so the Vahzilok storyline is effectively on pause. However, I want to do a few non-action-oriented posts to give a greater sense of where the ladies (Penny, Amy, and Enid) are, and what is going on with them, while the menfolk are tooling up and planning. This type of thing is the sort of background/atmosphere post that would be more difficult to do once the plot was moving towards resolution. There might be a couple of these "atmosphere" sorts of posts.... please don't respond to them, as they are not intended to do anything but describe where the characters are. I want to emphasize that the plot is on hold, and nothing will actually happen until Erik returns.))

"Now, Mrs. Sanstad, if you will speak into the camera, we will deliver this videotape to your husband. Just say what we told you to say." The Luminous's voice was somewhat annoyed.

Enid was sitting in the chair facing the camera - not that she had a lot of choice in the matter. Her hands were tied behind her back. "I will do nothing of the sort," she snapped acidly. She knew that the camera was rolling, and was not at all pleased about it.

"Mrs. Sanstad - "

"Don't give me that, 'You'll hurt me,' crap," she spat. "You need me alive, and you'll still need me alive after you make that videotape." Her eyes flashed. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Surely," the Eiledon was clearly trying to be patient, "There must be SOMEthing you wish to say to your husband?"

Enid considered, with her eyes narrowed, and then finally turned to the camera. She looked perfectly composed. "Erik," she said firmly, "breathe." She took a deep breath. This was something that she had taught to her husband, trying to show him how to relax, and release his worry and stress.

"Now then: I'm going to be late. You'll need to fix your own dinner - look in the largest freezer, there should be some enchiladas and beef casserole. And don't forget to put the blue phone in its charger, I don't think I remembered to replace it before I left. And don't worry! Everything will be all right."

She turned and glared at the Eiledon. "Satisfied?" She spat.

"Not what we had requested, but it will do. This way, Mrs. Sanstad..." it ushered her from the room. Enid glowered, but went without comment.

The Eiledon couldn't know the true contents of the message. The largest freezer that the Sanstads owned happened to be the one in the safe room below the basement. And there was only one blue phone in the house - Cassie's toy "Talk to a hero" phone, which she carried everywhere. Several big-named Paragon City heroes had agreed to do recordings for it, so that a child could press the buttons and hear things like, "Hello! This is Statesman! Put in the secret word HERO at my website to unlock the code of the day!" or "Lady Liberty says, reading is fun!"

She just hoped he would put together the clues, and realize that Cassie was in the safe room in the basement. For now, though, she could only grit her teeth, and trust in her husband. Still glowering, she followed the Eiledon from the room.

It had taken almost two hours to pry Crystal away from Paul's side when she saw him, and she was only (and very reluctantly) persuaded to leave him after repeated promises from both Jack and the doctor on duty that Paul was all right, she couldn't do anything for him, and that no one would know anything for hours, and they would call her the moment they even suspected he might be awakening soon. Crystal was heartbroken; her thoughts were all for him.

But eventually she tailed Jack as he stormed around, looking for MacBeth.

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"You Macbeth? Why are........... Pink Boy?" He said in surprise.

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Crystal blinked in surprise. "Oh - I didn't recognize you - without the pink, I mean... do you own all of this?" She looked impressed.

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"We'll go and check on Paul, then go and see what this Macbeth guy wants. What happened to Pink Boy and Gadget Boy?" He asked.

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Crystal's brow furrowed. "I don't know about Master Wonderful, but he isn't here, and he got us out, so he must be OK.... they told me that Experiment is up and about, but I haven't seen him yet... he must be around somewhere." She turned around when he said it was safe to do so. "I'm sorry about your jacket," she said awkwardly, and he realized - it hadn't come back with them. It was still down there!

She rubbed the back of her neck. "Maybe - we can get it out - before we blow that place up," she said slowly, hoping to comfort him.

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"I'm fine. What about you? Are you alright? You had me scared. I thought you had going to OD?" He asked her.


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"I'm fine," Crystal sniffled, wiping her eyes. "I thought I was dying but my body - absorbed it or something..." She shook her head. "Doc's worried, he says that whatever mutation I started out with has likely progressed even further but.... but they say I am fine... and I feel fine..."

She shook her head, her eyes brimming. "But Paul's unconscious," she whispered. "And they can't wake him up..."

The look on her face was awful. As if everything good in the world had been extinguished with the light in Paul's closed eyes.

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"Mr MacBeth brought you in." The nurse told him as she wrote a few notes on his chart.

"Who?" Jack asked.

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"The CEO of the American branch of the company that is currently providing your medical attention," smiled the nurse. She went to the door and opened it. "You can come in now," she said to Crystal.

Crystal came in rather timidly from the hallway. Her cheeks were tear-streaked and it looked as if she had been weeping. She looked at him for a moment through reddened eyes.

Then he was drowning in her embrace. She put her arms around him and clung to him like a limpet. "Oh Jack! You're all right! Thank God, thank God, I have been so scared, I have been so scared for you, you have been unconscious, what if you had died, you're like the brother I never had, what would I have done if you had died, I am so glad you are all right, I have been so scared, oh Jack - " And she burst into a storm of sobbing, holding him to her as ferociously as if he was something very precious that she had almost lost.

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However, if I put you on the other end of that radio, you are not allowed to correct how I'm projecting my 'heroic' persona. I act overconfident for a reason.

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Em pursed her lips. "With one exception," she insisted. "I don't mind you acting overconfident, but there is a difference between acting overconfident and doing something that is going to get yourself killed. The second I perceive that you are doing something stupid that is going to get you or other people killed, I'm going to squawk. I won't override your final decision, but if it is dangerous, you will hear about it." She watched him carefully.

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"If this is agreeable, and if you don't have any questions, it looks like we have some work to do."

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"The rest of it is fine... lets get to work," she smiled at him.

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"It seems we have a bit of a problem, Ms. Brown. Even though I don't believe you to be the kind of person to use what you have deduced to gain leverage over me, I am still not comfortable taking that risk. So that leaves me with three options. First, I could have you transferred to some remote sector of my father's company. Second, I could let you go back to work with only your word that you will not speak of what you know about me to any one with no way to ensure that you will not change your mind and blow the whole thing. These first two are neither of which attractive to me, while for you, only the second one may only be marginally desirable. So that leaves us with our third option. You are still transferred, however, you would be transferred to a personal office as well as provided accomodations on this floor. You would answer directly to me and be a part of my personal staff, which only consists of Martin at this point. Part of your duties would be to uses your exceptional skills to aid a superhero in his quest to make the city safer. Oh, and you'd get a decent pay raise. So, while I know you consider Master Wonderful to be exceedingly arrogant, what do you say to my proposal?"

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Em sat back and considered. She seemed much more comfortable now that the pretenses were finally being dropped, and studied him appraisingly. "Take your glasses off," she finally said, and when he did so, she studied his face.

"All right," she said, "Let's say, for the sake of argument, that I want in." She sat back. "If I am coming in to this thing, I am coming IN, full-fledged, no holds barred. Not as your personal assistant, not as your secretary, as your partner, and don't tell me you don't need one," she raised her eyebrows as he opened his mouth to protest.

The look on her face was sharp, and her eyes glittered like a raven's when it had spotted a particularly shiny coin. Her file had said, among other things, that, given the proper confidence, she could be quite a fireball - and he was watching it, two feet away.

"Master Wonderful has never had a partner," came the reply.

"And it shows," she shot back, not at all intimidated now, gaining confidence by the moment. "I am not asking to put on spandex and go running around after criminals - I can't even see without my glasses. Besides, I would never be able to coordinate with that pink," she smirked. "But you need to have a radio at all times, and you need a live body on the other end of it. That's the job I want. And I want access to everything about everybody and I want to coordinate any information about anything from anywhere, at my discretion, so that you have the information you need when you are out there." Her eyes were intent as she watched him. "I believe it is called, backup. And unless I have completely misread Martin, he's been at you to get some."

No longer intimidated, she was watching him like a hawk. She knew exactly what she wanted - fireball, indeed!

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"You aren't quiting are you? Or are you thinking that I'm going to fire you? Well, never mind that now. We can discuss what to do about this incident after you explain all this to me."

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Em couldn't believe she had put her foot in her mouth like that. Then again, she reflected as they rode up in the elevator, she always seemed to go around with one foot or another in her mouth. Or both. She had a sharp tongue and she knew it. Oh well... might as well go out with a bang.

The office was as opulant as she had imagined the CEO's office to be: rich carpeting and windows looking out to the great beyond. There was a conference room adjacent, and it was to this that he took her.

Damn, damn, damn. She needed her job. She had been out of work for a while, and free-lancing - though she loved it - hadn't paid very well. And yet she found a job restrictive: it was very difficult to obtain the information she needed while punching a time clock. Still... there were always worse fates than losing one's job, she mused. And she could always go back to free-lancing and starve for a while. When it came right down to it, ramen noodles were cheap.

"Ahem." She became aware that the CEO was staring at her, and jumped.

"Um... sorry."

If there was one thing that Em hated, it was giving reports to the top brass. It wasn't gathering the information she minded, or casting it into a recognizable shape, but rather the actual giving of them: she was always shy about speaking in front of people. She had, in fact, skillfully avoided giving verbal reports to anyone but Pensington for more than a year... that rat. He had set her up.

"Um... the report. Um. Report. OK." She swallowed nervously. "It was originally supposed to be about the people you brought in this morning. There were four of them: Jack, Crystal, Paul, and a hero registered as Experiment 2.0. As of 20 minutes ago, Crystal had recovered and was awake. Jack was waking up. Paul and Experiment remain unconscious. Robotics is working on Paul. Experiment should be up and about any time now... in fact he may be up now." She thinned her lips: she had intended to call in last thing before she came up, which had of course been interrupted.

"Paul is unconscious but seems to be stable. There are nanites in his bloodstream. They are modifying themselves in response to a massive dose of Russian Roulette - er, sorry. That is the slang term for new 'Dyne which is starting to filter onto the streets. At any rate, Robotics believes that the nanites must have been present in his bloodstream already. He is stable, and doesn't seem to be in any danger, but they are warning that they don't know what the long term effects will be."

She flipped over a page. "Experiment doesn't seem to have received any Russ - erm, any of the new 'Dyne. He did have a mild concussion, but seems to be healing at a phenomenal rate, and was given a clean bill of health. He should be on his way up soon, once the doctors give him a once-over just to be sure he is OK."

She flipped over another page. "Jack got a massive dose of new 'Dyne, about 150% what he should have for his body weight. He's lucky he is not dead - however, he is a mutant, and the theory at Medical is that he was able to expend the excess energy in some fashion. He woke up just before you came down, preliminary reports seem to indicate that he is OK. "

The last page had a yellow sticky on it, and she sighed when she saw it, clearly displeased, but removed the sticky and put it on the inside cover of the manilla folder. "Crystal is alive, awake, and seems to be all right, and no one in Medical can say why. She got the same dose of the new 'Dyne as Jack but she is half his weight, she should have OD'd. They thought at first that she did OD. But she woke up about an hour ago, seemed to be perfectly coherent." She passed over the paper to him, as she had passed over the others. "Doc's worried, she seems to be a mutant, and they think that her powers manifested recently, maybe within the last 24 hours. 'Dyne is bad news introduced into that sort of setup, where the DNA structure may be unstable anyhow... Doc really doesn't like it, but he has no reason to keep her, so he released her. Word is she is waiting to see what the status on the others is. She may or may not be up here to talk to you, she seems pretty upset that Paul is unconscious."

Em fell silent. Though she had given him several papers out of her folder, giving him the exact information had been requested, there was still a half inch of papers that hadn't been touched. When he prompted her, "And?" She gave a tiny jump.

"And.. um... hrm. Well - you probably already know all of this."

"Tell me anyway."

"Tell you anyway. Um. Ok - ok. New 'Dyne - here we go." She removed another yellow sticky note and put it on the inside of the manilla folder. Her voice definitely gained confidence when talking about facts and figured, and lost it when talking to him - she was scared.

"New 'Dyne, also called Russian Roulette." Another sticky note went on the inside of the folder. "Here - this is the chemical makeup of traditional Superdyne, this other illustration," she pushed two papers at him, "is the chemical makeup of Roulette - as you can tell, they are different drugs. Roulette is packaged and disguised to look, taste, and smell like 'Dyne, but it isn't remotely related."

Her voice was gaining some confidence now that she was looking at papers and talking about data. "Long story short, 'Dyne gives maybe 5 or 7 percent of its users super-powers. Predictions are that Roulette will be closer to 40: it either gives you super powers, or you're dead, with not much in between." She pushed more papers at him, so that he could pick them up and look at them. "Even though we know that Roulette is being manufactured in Brickstown, the Family has nothing to do with it, isn't pushing it, doesn't want in on the action, and in fact is looking for the manufacturers to shut them down. So far, they haven't been found. Gangs are fracturing in regards to Roulette usage: Outcasts generally won't touch it, Trolls love it, Hellions want it, jury is still out on the Freakshow and the Skulls." Another sticky note went on the inside of the folder.

More papers came to him across the table. "Roulette's main component is THXTC, a chemical compound that is not found on earth and hasn't successfully been synthesized by humans... not that Crey and a few others haven't tried, mind you." Yet another sticky note went on the inside of the folder. "But it is heavily used in every piece of Rikti technology we've ever found or disassembled. And whoever is making Roulette has a steady supply of the stuff. Needless to say, Crey is itching to find the production facilities - but word on the street is they've come up blank too. There are no dealers, no suppliers, no customers... it just mysteriously ends up in warehouses, where it disappears equally as mysteriously." She looked at the papers and frowned, thinking.

"Aaaaaand?" He prompted, and she jumped.

"Er. And. Um. Yes. Ahem - there's a police report - " Three seperate sticky notes went on the inside of the folder, "About a new kind of Lost being discovered - something called an Anomolous. It put a whole bunch of heroes in the hospital, some of them are still there. Autopsy report will be a few days, but the blood tests are back, and it was loaded with Roulette." She paused, as if she was going to say more, but fell silent.

"You have a lot of yellow sticky notes attached to this report," she heard the prompt, and startled out of her thoughts with a jump.

"Well, there are some things that - don't fit in a report very well," she was blushing now.

"Tell me about them anyway."

She took her sticky notes and started going through them. "The kids - Jack, Paul, and Crystal - go to Paragon University. There was a Vahzilok attack at Paragon University - bunch of scared kids, no deaths, there are some eyewitness reports that put these kids at the heart of the attack." She thinned her lips again and looked through her notes. "There's a professor that works there, one Erik Sanstad by name. He's missing. Furthermore, there have been additional unusual Vahzilok attacks, one of which was at his home. His wife, one Enid Sanstad, and daughter, Cassie Sanstad, are also listed as missing."

More flicking through stickies. "Sanstad was interviewed a few days ago by a reporter, one Steven Harris, mysteriously missing, coincidentally went missing at the same time as Sanstad. In addition there was another Vahzilok attack at Mercy Memorial, and a patient named Amy Harris was taken and is now also listed as missing. "

She looked at the next sticky note for a minute before talking about it. "And... there was another Vahz attack which was... unusual. It's not generally known, but there was a heist reported a few weeks ago at Terra Volta. Some pretty hefty amounts of reactor-grade nuclear material went missing. They found a caved-in tunnel and a few Vahzilok corpses, and nothing else. The Vahzilok have never been seen at Terra Volta before or since. I don't know how that fits in, but that makes the fourth Vahzilok attack which differs drastically from their usual M.O. Three of those attacks have occured within the last forty-eight hours."

Another sticky note got a long look. "As of this month, there have been as many missing person reports in King's Row as were reported at the height of the Rikti war. It's a jump of 100% from the month before, and a jump of 750% from two months ago. People are going missing at a rate to boggle the mind, and no one even knows."

She shook her head as she looked at the sticky note. "But Vahz attacks - the typical sort, I mean, not the four oddball ones - have actually decreased in the last 60 days... at least as far as things like stealing corpses goes."

She sat back in her chair, still looking at the last sticky note. "And I don't know how it all fits together, but I know that it does, and I can't just put in a report that I know that it is all related." She looked up and seemed to see him, as if breaking out of her chain of thought. "Er - sorry - I guess that was a little out of line." She cleared her throat awkwardly and looked at the last note. "At any rate - the hero who has really been on the front lines, as far as tracking down Roulette goes, is a fellow named Small Arms. I have a call in to him, but he hasn't returned it yet... and really, there is no reason he should, but... well I was hoping he could fill in a few gaps."

She sat awkwardly after this. "Um... that's all I have been able to track down so far," she said at last. "The rest of this... it's all just... just stuff." She ran her fingers through her hair, making it frazzle. Her hair looked as if it was frazzled rather often; she looked sort of pretty, with her delicate glasses and intent face, and the sun shining through her hair. "I mean, look at all of this... sewer explosion... missing underground worker team... sewer explosion... cut cable... cut phone lines... missing phone lines, gotta love that one... this is from a soup kitchen on fourth and main, he says that his homeless have stopped showing up for meals... here is an explosion from this morning, it actually penetrated the street... " She chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "There is something going on under King's Row. I don't know what. Something..." Her brows were furrowed as she looked at the papers, lost in thought. "Maybe Small Arms will have more on it, I don't know..."

[ QUOTE ]
"Well, do whatever it takes." He was about ready to hang up but then thought of something. "Oh, one more thing, send our guests up to my office when they are well enough to move."


[/ QUOTE ]

***
Paul
***
The people from the robotics division arrived very promptly. Paul was moved to his own seperate room, and people moved in and out almost continually. In spite of all efforts, he remained stubbornly unconscious.

***
Experiment 2.0
***
When Experiment woke up, he found he was in a streamlined medical facility. There was a doctor waiting. "There, that's better," he smiled. "I'm glad to say you have a clean bill of health, son. You can leave at any time. However, your presence has been requested by the head of this corporation, once you are well enough to see him."

***
Jack
***

Jack had spent some time seeming to float as his body relentlessly burned the drug out of his system. When he woke, his head felt strangely clear, almost hollow - but it didn't hurt, which was saying a lot. It might start hurting again later, but for now... it was a nice feeling.

There was a nurse at his bedside when he opened his eyes, taking his pulse, and she smiled at him. "Good morning," she told him. "You gave us a scare... but you have recovered all right." She put a number down on her clipboard. "Doc will want to take a look at you, before releasing you... in the meantime, are you accepting visitors?" Her eyes twinkled. "You have one, you know."

Outside his door - which had a window inset in it - he could catch just a glimpse of bright, coppery hair. It seemed that Crystal had recovered, and was waiting for him.

+++
(OOC: Paul's player is off on an important trip, so Paul will be unconscious for a bit, until he returns.))

[ QUOTE ]
"Well, do whatever it takes." He was about ready to hang up but then thought of something. "Oh, one more thing, send our guests up to my office when they are well enough to move."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Ms. Brown!!" Edward Pensington looked in her office, but she wasn't there. "Ms. Brown - bother that girl, where - "

"I'm here, Boss, keep your shirt on." Unlike most of the employees, Emily Brown had an American accent.

"Come into my office this instant!" Emily shrugged and followed. Pensington closed the door behind them. "Where is your report? Mr. MacBeth is screaming for it!"

"If Mr. MacBeth wants accurate information in the report, he will have to keep his shirt on too," Emily shot back, but raised a placating hand. "I keep telling you, it's not complete. However, here's what I have so far - can I use this whiteboard?"

At Pensington's nod, she took a marker and began making diagrams. "Let's start with the new Dyne in town."

"I haven't heard of a new form of Superdyne."

"Neither have most people - interesting, huh? Look here - normal 'Dyne is usually produced elsewhere, then funneled through the Family, going through Brickstown and Independence Port, for the most part. From there it is distributed out to these gangs - " She was making a sort of organization chart, with circles connected by lines, "who front through these other gangs... to the consumer... like that."

She flipped over the papers on her clipboard. "Now, the chemical structure of Superdyne looks - sort of like - this..." She drew another series of lines and circles, except this time the circles were labelled with various chemical abbreviations.

"So far so good? Now, the best-known properties of Superdyne, and the reason most people take it, is in the hopes of getting super-powers. Researching is still being done on precisely how it works, but it seems that this chemical arm here," she circled it, "Interacts with basic DNA structure, potentially breaking it down and reforming it - resulting in superpowers if a number of other currently-unknown factors are also at work. It's currently believed that possibly 5 to 7 percent of consumers will develop superpowers. For everyone else... well, it's bad news all the way around."

She erased the whiteboard. "OK, all that was OLD 'Dyne. Here comes the NEW 'Dyne. Ready for this?"

On the top of the whiteboard she drew a circle. "It's coming from Brickstown. We know that much. We also know that it is not being made somewhere else and imported: it's being produced in Brickstown itself, somewhere. So far, no one has found out where. After Brickstown..." From the circle branched a single, dotted line, "... it disappears. There are no pushers, there are no dealers, there is no Family, there are no gangs, there are - apparantly - no consumers."

Pensington looked surprised.

Em grinned. "No, wait - it gets better. Ready for this?" She started drawing more circles on the board. "Not only is the Family NOT involved in the new 'Dyne trade, they are putting their muscle out to be sure that the gangs aren't involved in it either. The gangs - especially the Trolls - want it so bad that there have been a number of reports of gangs raiding warehouses for it behind the Family's back. So far, they haven't been able to catch anyone doing it. You can imagine what will happen once they finally do."

Pensington was looking worried. "Mmm. Go on."

"OK so, remember old 'Dyne here?" She tapped the previous chemical illustration, which she had not erased. "Here's new 'Dyne," she began a second chemical-structure illustration, stopping several times to check her notes.

The second chemical illustration, when it was completed, was far more complex than the original. "OK," she said when she was done, "Notice anything between these two?"

"The new 'Dyne is obviously more complex."

"Oh, is better than that. See this drug?" She tapped the top illustration. "See that drug?" She tapped the bottom illustration. "These two drugs are not related. The terms 'Old Dyne' and 'New Dyne' are a misnomer. This is not a case where someone figured out a new way to get a purer batch of the same drug. This is a case where someone made a completely new drug, then tacked on color," she tapped various short, stubby strings of chemicals, "taste, texture, and consistancy to make it LOOK like 'Dyne." She shook her head. "It isn't. It looks like 'Dyne in the same way that, say, powdered baking soda might look like powdered cocaine."

"Is that really an appropriate analogy?"

"More appropriate than you think," she returned. "This new 'Dyne is potent stuff. Remember a minute ago, how we talked about new 'Dyne giving the subjects in maybe five or seven percent of the user base? Now, we don't have enough live data to confirm it, but the computer guys down in MCT are projecting a forty percent chance of the development of super-powers. This is potent stuff, and it is not a drug that was designed to produce a high, where one of the side-effects is the possibility of super powers. This drug was designed for the specific purpose of genetic deconstruction and reconstruction, with a side effet of a nice buzz. You know what they are calling this variant of 'Dyne on the street?" He shook his head. "They call it 'Russian Roulette.' Half the reason the Family hasn't caught anyone raiding is because this either gives the user super-powers - or they are dead. There are a few reports of survivors with extreme mutations: those are very few and very far between."

Pensington sat back in his chair and exhaled slowly. "I didn't realize it was so serious. No wonder MacBeth was howling for this report."

"But wait, there's more," Em did her best 'informercial' voice, then became serious again. "This is where it gets wierd. See this?" She darkened the outline of one of the circles dramatically. "I won't bore you with its full name, it would take me twenty minutes to finish it. Its abbreviation is TXHTC and it is one of the big workhorses in this chemical compound. That chemical compound has never been successfully reproduced on this planet... not by humans, at any rate. It HAS been found in abundance in Rikti technology, all over their spaceships, all through their weaponry. And it has also, as of two days ago, been found somewhere else."

She flipped to the back of her clipboard. "Forty-eight hours ago, a paranormal encounter report was filed with the PPD. A group of heroes encountered an Eramite in King's Row. It was bigger and meaner than any Eramite ever previously encountered. It took four full groups of heroes to take it down. Five of those heroes are still in the hospital. Two aren't expected to live through the end of the week. One is already in the morgue. And that is with properly-working medical patches and full emergency medical response within ten seconds of transportation." She looked sad for a moment. "At any rate... the Eramite is still undergoing autopsy, so we don't have full information about it at this time. We DO know that it is being given its own classification... they are calling it an Anomolous. We also have a blood report." She tapped the illustration of the new 'Dyne. "It's LOADED with this stuff. Preliminary analysis indicates that it is highly probable this new 'Dyne is a big agent in its transformation: like it was custom-made specifically to make bigger, badder Eramites."

Pensington sat back thoughtfully. "Well that certainly is an interesting report."

"It's all we have so far," she was flipping through the pages on her clipboard again.

"Ready to give it to MacBeth?"

"Oh no way, don't look at me, I don't do reports, I only gather and compile information. If I give this report he will have me out on my ear and I NEED my job, please-and-thank-you."

"He wants accurate information."

"He wants British Discretion, somebody who will sit down and shut up and do what she's told," she came back. "The second he hears me talk, he'll can me."

"I hope not," Pensington replied as he stood up, "Because I have a meeting, and you are my best agent. Go on now!" And he left the office.

[ QUOTE ]
Before Master Wonderful had finished talking they were all suddenly back on the University Campus grounds. Jack had teleported them all again. It was the only acknowledgment he gave of Master Wonderful's request.

[/ QUOTE ]

The college was swarming with police and officials of every shape and description. Jack abruptly fell over: not unconscious, but momentarily stunned from the enormous amount of power he had used. It had burned most of the 'Dyne from his system at a shocking pace. Now his body was starting to go through the afteraffects - and stood in danger of falling into morbid shock.

Crystal was still out like a light; Paul, also, had stopped cursing and was showing signs of slipping into unconsciousness. Experiment 2.0 seemed to be as unconscious as the rest of them were. It looked like Master Wonderful, even with the chip that subdued his powers, was far and away the most able-bodied of the lot.

If the police spotted them, there could be legal issues, and in a big hurry. Jack's drug use was not unknown, and here he was covered in blood, pumped up on 'Dyne, and in the presence of two students also pumped up on 'Dyne. Arrests would be almost certain, and though eventually the mess would likely be straightened out in time, time was a luxury that none of them had at the moment. Perhaps it would be best to move to a location where medical attention was available, but official oversight would be at a minimum.....

[ QUOTE ]
"Martin, it's me, we have a bit of a situation here. I need you to send the prototype father sent to have field tested. My friends need to be gotten to the MCT (Medical Chemical Technologies) division, pronto. You have a lock on my cordinates? Good. I'll see you shortly, old man."

[/ QUOTE ]

In a few minutes Martin arrived. With the typical discretion of his staff, not a word was said about three unconscious students (one covered in blood) and an additional unconscious hero.

It was only once they were inside and well on their way to their destination that someone said, "Um... might I inquire as to how your morning went? It seems more... chaotic than usual."
+++
Edit: Oops, posted at the same time! Fixing my post Thought MW might like some posting time to extrapolate about his characters life, scientific setup, etc.,

OOC: Everyone involved in this thread, please check your email before responding to this post. (And if I have only just written it, give me a few minutes to write the emails!) I will be sending an email to everyone who has put their email addresses up, as well as sending a PM to all involved. To make what will be a long email very short, I propose that the "underground/Vahzilok" portion of the thread be put on hold until the good Dr. Sanstad can return from his trip. This post is an attempt to bring the story to a good "hold until next Tuesday/Wednesday" point. It is also an attempt to make sure that all the characters have access to the radio, which I plan to make an important tool for future postings (my apologies for putting my thumb in the radio pie, but I really, REALLY wanted to be sure everyone could hear the radio, it will be important!)

++++++

[ QUOTE ]
“Fire…” Erik growled at the gun-toting individual. “Fire at them.”

Without waiting himself, Erik pulled at the protons again… calling them to him and firing a massive wave at the foes. Both were knocked off their feet, both could feel their flesh being ripped open, but now… now the wounds inflicted did not heal… if anything they slowly opened more.

“FIRE AT THEM! HARRIS, THROW SOMETHING!”

[/ QUOTE ]

+++
OVER THE RADIO
+++

A gleam of silver attracted Erik's attention briefly... when he looked, it was the communicator. It must have fallen off earlier, but it had become wedged into the fold of his rolled-up (and now rather ragged) shirt sleeve, and there it had stayed through all his sorrows. It soon became apparant why: during the course of the day, he had lost the button for that cuff, and the communicator had become snagged in the thread. However, it seemed to be in good working order when he put it in his ear: he could hear perfectly.

The transmission sounds were faint, but audible, in the ears of those who happened to be wearing the devices.

In Remington's ears, Terrie suddenly buzzed in with, "Hey boss, I am getting some transmissions right near you, might be relevant, I think I can add the channel - watch out though, there might be some feedback while I do it - " And sure enough, after an earpiercing SQUEAK, Small Arms could hear the new wavelength in addition to whatever others he was currently monitoring.

There were the sounds of footsteps - a lot of them, now, and the sounds of rushing liquid. Then metal noises: the sounds of very heavy doors being opened and shut. Finally...

"Dr. Vahzilok?" It sounded like a Mortificator. "We found one of the heroes that destroyed that level 7 Black Line car."

"Mmmm..." The voice seemed inhuman. "Let me see..." There was sort of a FLUMP noise, as if an unresisting body had been laid on a table. "Scalpel," came next, followed by the distinct PING sound of a breaking blade, and then "Saw... hypodermic... hmph." Both of these commands were followed by the sound of breaking metal. The voice of Dr. Vahzilok sounded both annoyed and mildly interested. "What is this that she is encased in?"

"Some sort of armor - and we haven't been able to get it off. Seems to resist cutting and penetration of all kinds."

"I noticed," Vahzilok said dryly. "That was my best scalpel, too."

"We thought of soaking the armor in acid," offered the Mortificator thoughtfully.

"Mmm. Not a bad idea, but there are several small points where the skin is exposed - here, for example, and there... no, the acid would likely dissolve the subject before the armor. Useless."

"Hypodermic needle would fit in those spots, easily."

"Yes, but to what point?"

"Microsurgery? Tubular needle would fit there too."

"Ah," Vahzilok sounded eerily wise, "But the point of this experiment is to see if the Eiledon can be created by non-surgical, purely radiological means. We have to be able to combat the Lost... before we are overrun. We simply cannot make them fast enough. Well... take the hero away for now, this will require some consideration."

"Shall I put her with Amy Harris and Enid Sanstad?"

"Yes - no... wait." Vahzilok sounded as if he had just gotten an idea. "It occurs to me that the presence of the armor may be irrelevant if it isn't heavily radiation shielded... bring me that isotope, and hang her up on that hook."

There were some grunts. "It won't go through."

"Just put it under this protrusion, like that.." There was a CLANG noise. Clearly the hook had been placed under some part of the armor, and not in anything made of flesh.

"Well - " The mortificator's voice was farther away, as if he had gone to get something, "if it is so resistant to cutting, wouldn't it logically be shielded against radiation?"

"Not necessarily... whatever this fabric is, it seems to be extremely thin. Didn't you mention to me that one of the heroes giving us such trouble could turn invisible? If it was this one, logic would dictate that the materials used in such a stealth suit would be as lightweight as possible. That certainly isn't conducive to radiation shielding."

"Ready, boss?"

"Wait, let me just finish putting this on - yes, go ahead, open it - good - hang it around her neck - let's see if the suit is shielded."

After a moment a chattering, machine-gun-like noise came through - the noise of a geiger counter going mad at the presence of hard radiation. "As I thought - you may put the isotope back now." After a moment, the chattering noise stopped.

"Well, whatever the armor is, it appears to be unshielded. It shouldn't have an effect on the experiment. Put her in the irradiation chamber, and be sure to bind her securely, we don't know what capabilities that armor has. Assume that it has super-strength and teleportation abilities and anything else you can think of. She must be secure!"

"Yes sir... what about Mrs. Sanstad?"

"Put her in the observation chamber. Let her watch. With any luck, it will finally put some sense of fear into her heart." And then in an undertone, "It's not like anything else has. Jee-ZUS." If the radio could have transmitted the sound of Dr. Vazhilok rolling his eyes, it certainly would have.

"And Amy Harris?"

"Let me see - "

A sound came, a very far away sound, a sound that Harris hadn't heard in six years - the sound of a moan, the sort of moan one might make when one was sound asleep, and heard someone speak your name from the other room. "Mmm?"

"Her progress is excellent. She should be awake presently. Keep her treatment as-is." He paused, and came closer to the mike. "Didn't you say there were three heroes that were together, when they attacked the Black Line?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then prepare for visitors.... just in case."

In the long silence following these words came Terrie's voice. "Um, Boss... maybe you should make a stop back here and get some heavier armament, hm?"


+++
OOC: OK off to write emails, they should be out in a few minutes.

+++
Edit
+++
OK, all PMs and emails sent!

[ QUOTE ]
"Crystal, crystal, wake up." He didn't think how she would react if she did open her eyes and see the blood that covered him, the green burning in his eyes and the strange way he was acting. He didn't even think about the blood he was now smearing on her face as he reached out and tried to wake her.

[/ QUOTE ]

Crystal seemed to be thoroughly unconscious - and then he saw the empty Superdyne vial.

Even in his drugged state he realized that they must have given her as much as they had given him - but Crystal was half his weight, if that, and unlike him had never used drugs of any sort. Even unconscious he could tell she was deeply under its influence. But she was mumbling something. He leaned close to her head and caught a thought: teleport. She wanted to teleport.

Under the influence of the drug.... it was possible he might be able to teleport them out of here - all of them. Before things turned ugly.

[ QUOTE ]
The voice cut out as Paul's belt began to glow red. He looked about the room and snorted. Tilting his head to the side he looked at the group and asked...

"What?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Into this fairly chaotic scene was brought Experiment. He was unconscious, but his PDA read all the activity, and gave him a sharp shock, trying to wake him up.

[ QUOTE ]
((OOC: DHOT! Sorry to break the tension here folks but I have to give you all fair warning. Tomorrow will be the last day I can post until Teusday of next week. I'm taking a trip over Labor Day weekend and will be no where NEAR a computer. Also... I'm going to ask for the REAL Enid's hand in marriage. Wish me luck! --->Erik))

[/ QUOTE ]

((OOC: WOW! Good luck! And listen - you HAVE to tell us romantic types here on the forum how it went!

And... as I guess I should follow my own rules...

Vincent proposed yesterday. I accepted. I am still on cloud 9. WOO!

Jen 8))

[ QUOTE ]
"There are times like these I hate bein' right," their target said, just before he jumped into the hole He didn't need to turn around to see that they followed him. He could hear their thunderous footfalls as he activated his flying circuits.

Now that he had their attention, he just had to figure out what to do with it, though running away seemed like a damn good start.


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
The train moved on… Smashing through several blocks of old rotted wood, past abandoned stations filled with warring Lost and Vahz, and past large signs saying “END OF LINE.”

[/ QUOTE ]

The car was still going at a furious speed when it hit the last of the END OF LINE signs. The stops at the ends of the tracks were old and rotten, and splintered under the force of the blow as the car struck them, full speed, sending within into the walls.

If the train had hit the stops full speed, it would have been the end of everyone inside. But because Harris had tried to stop the car, slowing it, the resulting collision was very different than it would have been otherwise.

One of the stops didn't splinter as badly as the second one had, and the car was thrown into a sharp spin. It did three complete three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turns before slamming into, and through, the next brick wall, causing a thunderous collapse in its wake.

The Vahz had been waiting there, at the end of the line. Those that weren't lucky enough to scramble out of the way were pulverized to mush. Many of the rest were buried in the avalanche that resulted from the destruction of the supporting wall that the car had hit.

The second and third brick walls shattered also, but with unequal violence. The car had been slowed by the first impact; it was slowed further by the second, and even further by the third.

The car barely made it through the fourth and final wall. Made of thick concrete, it exploded outwards in a shower of dust and rubble.

On the other side were two battling forms; one exceptionally large Abomination, and a very large Headman Blaster. They were chasing the small hero who had led them down here. The headman had the sense to try and get out of the way when the car suddenly burst from the wall like a bomb, spitting sparks, with the sound of shrieking metal. The hero also had to dive out of the way, for the car had come between them.

The small figure was quick enough to dive for cover. The headman wasn't. The car plowed into the next wall in a cacophony of noise and sparks and dust. The wall cracked in every direction, and pieces burst out of it, revealing its reinforced structure: but in spite of all of this, it held.

For a long moment the car hung suspended there by its own momentum, and then it crashed to the floor in a pile of rubble and steam.

Amazingly, the car was - for the most part - intact. Long ago a worker had lost his legs in an industrial accident: and after that all the cars had been redesigned for just such an emergency. Though all the windows had shattered, the reinforced frame had held up very well, its crumple zones thoroughly crumpled, but forming a tough safety shell which protected the passengers from the full devastation of the impact.

Nothing moved, in the moments that the car came to a rest. It just lay there, a great, ruined, steaming hulk.

The fight had just gotten a whole lot stranger than Small Arms had ever imagined.

(OOC TAG Small Arms! Woo hoo I have been DYING to get you connected to the plot! YEAH! BTW, while it is obviously up to you guys, I didn't figure anyone in the car was knocked out or dead or anything, probably just shook up. Have fun! )

[ QUOTE ]
In one final gasp Paul fought, and held up his middle finger as high as he could before saying... "For you... and the Horse you rode in on..."

One of the Gunmen snickered as the hero finally collapsed. The Abberant Erimite looked at the little convert and snorted in disgust before gesturing that this fallen human should be taken below...


[/ QUOTE ]

Though Master Wonderful and Jack were positioned so that they could not see each other, they were both positioned so that they could see Paul, when he was brought in over the shoulder of one of the Eramites. Like the others, he was unconscious. Like the others, he was held up and circled by the Anomolous for a scan. His gloves were still steaming from their expenditure of energy.

The Anomolous seemed to take a long time with Paul, continuing the scan for several minutes before lowering their arms. The Eramite took him towards the same machine that Jack and Master Wonderful had been placed in. Like Master Wonderful, Paul was first placed in the scanning tube.

The scan ran twice; and when the Eramite came to get Paul out of the scanning tube, he removed both sunglasses and belt, which he dropped on the pile of clothing containing the jackets he had removed earlier. When trying to remove the handwraps, though, he hit a snag, seeming to have difficulty trying to get them off.

He was still working on it when another Eramite brought Crystal in, unconscious like the rest of them had been, and took her to the Anomolous.

(OOC: I have two email addresses - swaragirl@yahoo.com and swaragirl@hotmail.com . Sadly, the IT administrators at my workplace can never figure out which one to block (currently I am locked out of Yahoo, but into Hotmail, a situation which could change at any time.) All I can say is, please copy BOTH addresses when you email me. I will likely get one or the other.))

+++
Penny was working on the hinges to the door when the train started, throwing her on her tail with a BUMP. She scrambled up again and started work immediately - one hinge was off, and the other one was coming loose...

A moment later, she had it. She pulled the door, got nothing, and engaged the servos in the suit to actually get it out of the frame and into the car. There was a protective railing just outside, and she leaned over this as far as she could, holding out her hands. The platform had already faded into the distance, but in the blackness of the tunnel beyond, she could see a streak of green rocketing towards them. "Erik!" She called to him, reaching out as far as she could. "Catch my hands!"

She prayed that he would reach the train in time - it was rapidly picking up speed.

[ QUOTE ]
Jack fell to his knees. He knew he had already lost but he didn't care about his own fate. His last thought before the darkness took him was about Crystal. Then he fell onto his side, out cold.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Eramite hit Jack with another mental blast after he collapsed, to be certain he was unconscious, then stood up and looked around. Satisfied there was no further interference, it picked him up, slinging him over its shoulder, and headed down the tunnel. The group of Lost followed: there was a scattering of humans in the group, and three Headmen sprinkled among them.

The sewer network was a winding, senseless maze of tunnels that went off in every direction. The Eramite seemed to know exactly where it was going, though, as it turned left and right and headed down.

Gradually the little group of Lost began encountering more Lost, dotting the sidewalks and shuffling around. As the Eramite continued downhill, and the numbers of other Lost around became greater, the composition of its group began to shift. One by one, the humans peeled off, heading in different directions. A couple of other headmen joined.

Then, as the Eramite continued to go downhill, the composition of the Lost themselves began to change. The humans which made up the majority of the Lost on the upper levels began to lose their humanity. After a while there was an equal number of headmen and humans. Later, there were more headmen than humans. Eventually, the humans disappeared altogether, and the Eramite was walking through other Headmen and Eramites.

Then the Headmen themselves began to thin out, and the numbers of Eramites began to swell. By the time the Eramite reached its destination, the Eramites outnumbered the Headmen.

Its destination was a door - a door that was quite out of place in the slimy, grime-coated sewers. The door was silver, shiny, futuristic, and quite new. No dirt or scum clung to it. It had no apparant way in - no doorknob, handle, or hinges. But when the Eramite approached it, it slid back smoothly, revealing the interior of an elevator. Only the Eramites entered the elevator: not even the Headmen got past this point.

The elevator hummed smoothly for nearly four minutes before the doors opened again - and opened into a world that seemed strangely out of place.

It was small, but featured three sleek, shining levels of ultrafuturistic technology. Lightning coursed in columns over power cylinders, and brightly-colored panels lit the walls, showing diagrams and graphs here and there.

This was the centralized Rikti automated facility.

But there were no Rikti here. This place was too small to warrant live Rikti personnel. No one stood at the brightly lit panels, or bothered the buttons or levers. The facility ran by itself, without the need for biological intervention. It drew much of its information from a series of small control boxes scattered throughout the sewers. Not all were operational now: the Vahzilok had found some and dismantled them for their own plans. A robot named Omega Prime had found others and dismantled them as well. The majority, however, remained hidden and fully functional. This place was deep in the territory of the Lost, and neither the robot nor any Vahzilok had ever penetrated this far into the realms of the Lost.

This place was populated entirely by Eramites, many of them the typical Aberrants and Rectors seen in the sewers and sometimes even on the streets.

Here, however, were other Eramites, Eramites never seen in any other place. Eramites that had not existed before. These were the Anomolous: bigger, stronger, less human even than the Eramites they had come from. Their movements were Rikti-like. And there were many of them. The place operated in an eerie silence, punctuated only by the noises of the automated facilities. All commands and conversation happened on a telepathic level. It was a quiet, clean, futuristic Hell.

The Eramite approached the Anomolous with the results of his scouting mission, lifting the unconscious Jack off of his shoulders and holding him up. A ring of Anomolous formed around him, all of them extending their twisted, deformed hands in his direction.

The Anomolous were stunningly telepathic. Jack was hit with a staggering amount of telepathic energy from every direction. This energy was maintained for a minute or two before he was lowered again. A decision had been reached.

The Eramite took his prize down to the next level. Here, in the center of the nest, was an enormous, shining machine. Its heart was a cylinder, and inset along the sides of the enormous cylinder were a number of smaller, transparent cylinders of some clear material.

The door to the cylinder opened with a gesture. Clearly designed for Eramites, Jack looked too small to fit inside easily. Nevertheless, the Eramite took some pains to secure him. Rather clumsily, it stripped off his leather jacket, tossing it aside as useless. Ominously, it landed on a small pile of other discarded garments... garments the owners had never returned to retrieve.

The straps and manacles were all silver, seamless, and shining. The first pair were above Jack's head: though he was tall enough to reach them, it was only just barely. The Eramite secured his wrists, leaving him stretched on his toes, before setting additional restraints around his arms, chest, waist, knees, and ankles. The final piece was a sort of headband which went around his temples. It had lights and a set of dangerous-looking antennae which, even in their inactive state, spat sparks gently into the air.

Having secured his prisoner, the Eramite closed the door of the cylinder, enclosing Jack inside of it, and walked to a control panel, pressing several buttons, and putting his hand on a large lever. The machine, in response to the buttons being pressed, made a dreadful humming noise that vibrated and throbbed through the floor of the facility. The sort of noise felt even in the soles of the feet.

One of the Anomolous turned. The Eramite paused, then removed his hand from the switch, pressing the buttons again to still the machine. Like a large animal put back to sleep, the wierd, vibrating, growling noise faded away.

No words were necessary. More prisoners were on the way down. The machine could Change many humans at a time: there was no need to run it for a single subject, if it could Change more. There would be only a few minutes delay: they would wait.

The Eramite walked away from the controls, leaving Jack exactly where he was, locked in his cylinder, awaiting the Change... the one which would turn him, too, into an Eramite, and swell the ranks of the Lost by one.

[ QUOTE ]
It protected her entire head. Her voice came only through the radio now. "Let's do this thing."


[/ QUOTE ]

Penny gave them a thumbs up, and then disappeared from view. In spite of all the damage it had taken, the suit still bent light beautifully. They had the briefest glimpse of her gingerly opening the door of the grate, and then she was gone.

Penny hit the floor and almost landed on the Vahz: they were thick here. Moving almost like a dancer she wove between abominations and mortificators, even between the Eiledons who were dotted around here and there.

She reached the car without mishap and snuck inside. It was befouled and filthy, smeared with dirt and grime, but the controls, though well-worn, seemed to be in working order. "Erik - Steven - can you hear me?" No sound issued from the soundproofed helmet, but the radio came through just fine. "I am in position: once you send out the radiation field, I will cover Harris when he makes his run to the car. Ready when you are!"