Redefette

A security guard let Claire pass his checkpoint. Due to the events Spruks gas had caused, everyone was checked. But the guards were checking people for irrational violent behaviour and traces of Spruks mind altering gas. That is why this day was exceptional in a way for Claire to walk into the building thru the front door. Undetected. She walked by the guidelines Brad had told her, and reached his section of R&D.

"Brad!" she shouted cheerfully and ran to give him a big hug.
"Hello, lab-assistant Claire Smith", Brad answered, and let her hug him. People around them didn't consider that extraordinary behaviour at that time. Many, if not all, had lost someone they loved today. People watched the news of riots, some cried, others wept or sobbed silently. People lucky enough were happy as Claire to meet someone they thought had been slain because of Spruks gas.
"I'm so sorry I shouted at you in the phone", she whispered in his ear.
"It's ok, don't worry about it. Let's go, this way."

Brad led Claire into a large operation room, which was not quite an ordinary operation room. This room was equipped to install and maintain people, who this company had chosen to carry it's biotechnic or cybertechnic enchantments. There was no-one else in the room. Earlier today, Brad had disabled the surveillance camera system of his section, and shut the blinds of the windows to that operation room. Many of the employees had not showed up at for work, so as risky as it seemed normally, today it was possible to pull out a stunt like they were doing without getting caught.

Claire dropped her lab-coat and took off her shirt, then she hopped on the operation table, and turned on her belly. Brad came next to her and wired her into the analysis equipment. As Brad walked to the analysis computer control terminal, Claire turned around to her back. "I'm not able to use my powers anymore. Uhm, I don't even see any screens, it's like everything is just suddenly gone.", she said to Brad. Brad reached the terminal and started to gather information of Claire's state, glancing Claire on the table nonchalantly and repeatedly. She had turned on her side, and was smiling innocently to Brad. "You look like an angel", Brad thought but didn't say it aloud. Instead, he asked: "Do you remember what I said when you forced me to embed this system into your body?"

"No I don't." Claire answered: "I don't have all of her memories."
"Oh, yes you weren't there..hmmm... I told her this had been experimental and rejected unit to begin with. It was not tested, virtually not at all, because the project was promptly terminated. After been set to purge everything out of your body, the system probably hung up."
"I am grateful it purged out the poison gas and kept me alive, though. But I need it repaired, people outside need help, this is not the time to be incapasitated."
"Let me see..." Brad said and opened results of system scan on his screen. As he saw the digits and diagrams his eyes watered, blurring the results in his sight. He swallowed nothing, and closed his eyes. "Claire, I want you to lay on your back and close your eyes, keep perfectly still... I need to run some tests. This will take some time, don't move at all. I go and check no-one comes in here in the meantime. Don't move until I come back."
"Ok.." Claire replied but Brad was already on his way out. He got out of the operation room and kept walking the down corridor without looking at anyone. He went to a staff dressing room, opened a faucet and splashed water on his face. It didn't stop the tears. He looked at himself in the mirror, his face went thru the emotions from sorrow to anger and back. Suddenly, he grabbed a plastic bottle of liquid soap and threw it on the floor. In anger, he turned away from the mirror and bashed his fist into a metal door of a clothes cabinet. Then he went into a toilet cubicle and sat down. Echoes of company propaganda from the loudspeakers were louder than quiet weeping.

He thought he heard his cell-phone ringing. Cursing silently, still half asleep he reached for his cell-phone next to his alarm clock. He didn't bother to look at the time, he thought he forgot to set the alarm and they were calling him to assist concerning some abandoned project, if the files and folders of it still were somewhere.

"Hellooo..." he said in the phone.
"Brad. It's me. I hear sirens in my head. And I see these pop-up windows showing me these colums and pillars and spectrographs and telling me of ABC-threat..."

It was Claire. Or someone who used to be Claire. He stood up in the bed, yawning, listening to her continuos flow of words. Then he looked at the alarm clock.

"Claire. It's half past one in the morning-"
"I know what the god damn time is! I see the freaking clock in my eyes 24 hours a day!!!"

Brad stoop up, now quickly awaking from his slumber. Now THAT was something he didn't expect.

"Claire. Is it really you?"

The other end of the phone was silent for a moment, then she answered:

"No. But... I feel weird."

He let her tell. The more she told him, the more worried he started to be.

"...didn't hear any explosion but the sirens started to scream in my ears without warning and now the system keeps popping these windows in my sight faster than I can close them-"

"Claire, I need you to give the exact foreign substance report from monitoring, bio-system, auxliary-"
"WaitWaitWaitI don't haveMonitoringOn-"
"Yes you do, otherwise you wouldn't get these warnings of you beeing contaminated."
"But this says monitoring IS OFF!!!"
"Calm down, you didn't select bio-system from the monitoring sub-menu-"
"BUT I DID!!!"

Something was really wrong. She wasn't Claire, but she started to sound like her, more and more. Brad moved away from the bedroom and went to study to wake his computer up from hibernation. He logged in and started to prepare a secure remote connection, still holding his cellphone next to his ear and giving help for Claire to establish the other end of the connection. Once the connection was made, he downloaded the reports and preliminary analysis of the substance. He wasn't exactly a chemist, but with his not-so-limited knowledge of chemistry and some years studying of human neurology he came quickly to a conclusion.

"Oh dear." he said.
"What? What does that mean? Am I going to die? Are all these people in here going to die?"
"...possibly..."
"THAT'S IT! I am not dead yet I need to go out and rescue as many as I can before-"
"Stop, no. Listen."
"People are in danger-"
"No, if you go out you will do something really, really stupid. Listen to me. Don't go out. You are only danger to others now. Are you still there?"
There was a brief silence, but then, she answered.
"Yes Brad. I am here. What should I do?"
"First, you need to check if anyone is with you there where you live."
"No, no-one here. My flat-mate is not here at the moment she said she-"
"Fine. Now you need to check that all the doors and windows are closed and secured. If you can, block them with furniture to make sure no-one gets in. Or... at least has some trouble getting in."

He heard sounds of rustling and clacking, she moving furniture, squeking and rattling.

"Ok, done."
"Good. Next, you need to pile up bottles of water next to your bed. Drinking water, to be exact. If you don't have bottled water in there, run some water in kettles or pots and take it next to your bed."
"What?"
"You are going to drink that water later. Make sure it's good for drinking later."

He heard her doing as he told her. Then she told him she had done that, with blatant annoyance in her voice: "What are you making me do? People outside are going to die and you make me do some fcking Simon says -play?"
"Hmmmgoood..." he said, trying to sound as calm as possible, simultaneously tapping a script on his keyboard.

"Ok Claire, now go on your bed. Lay down."
He heard her doing as he said, protesting quietly with mutterings and mumblings.
"I am sending you a script. I can't run it via remote connection, you need to authorize and run it in there."

He sent the script. And waited. Then Claire answered.

"Ok, the god damn script is here. Should I run it now?"
"Yes- Wait! Is your head on the pillow?"
"..."
"Put your head on the pillow, please."
(muttering) "Ok now my god damn head is on the muthafcking pillow!"
"Run the script, please."
(annoyed mumbling) "Ok, done. What will thi-"

LOST CONNECTION TO REMOTE HOST -text appeared on his screen. He heard a silent thump on the phone, followed by a short splash.

His current girlfriend had woken up, and came to him as he put away the phone. "Brad, who was that?"
Brad looked briefly at the chemical analysis before he shut down the computer, then turning to his girlfriend: "Uh, just an old friend of mine. I helped her to sleep."

Post deleted by Redefette

Global Name: @Redefette
Server: Union
City of Heroes Character:
Redefette, a less-known low-profile keeping superheroine and her secret civilian identity.
Update: character no longer available for RP purposes. Reason: character murdered.