(( NOTE: The real name of the character 'Soullll Trainnn' has been changed to Kashaye Parker - my earlier post on her origin had a different name.))
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"Kashaye, I'm sorry, but your lab tests have been cancelled."
"Wait, hold up... Cancelled? Why?"
"Well, the whole Muon Dampener project is being... reassigned. So we don't have the funding or the equipment to try and recreate what happened to you."
"Doc, don't hand me that bulls***!! I was a top employee in this lab, and now ever since that da** subatomic muon-whatsis reactor of yours failed containment, I've been walking around acting like the bumpers in a pinball game! I NEED TO FIND OUT WHY!! What about the lab rats? Did we get anything from the experiments with the rats?"
"Shaye, all the rats died. You know that. And no, we don't know why. Their internal organs looked like something you'd find in a road-kill deer. Impact trauma. But no marks on the outside. One literally exploded in place like it'd been slammed up against a wall at 50mph for crissake!!"
"Yah I remember. That was bad. So you KNOW why I want to find out, right? I don't want to wake up some morning and find my spleen's been turned into jelly." Kashaye frowned. "Wait, you said 'reassigned.' To who?"
"Crey Industries."
"WHAT????? You mean to tell me, that that bit** the Countess is running this? I don't BELIEVE this!!"
"Well, not her particularly. It was a rider attached to Crey's endowment donations for the Institute. They reserved the right to select and administer certain research projects in ALL fields, not just physics... Kashaye, they're our biggest contributor, we can't just tell them 'No' when they see a project they like!"
"So, what does THIS mean fo' ME, Doc? I gotta go sign in over at Crey to get my insurance payments, now? Or get my three-times-a-month medical workup and CAT scans?"
"Ahh, well, the insurance has been dropped..."
"WHAT?????? You can't DO this to me Doc! I got bills to pay! I can't work no desk job, these powers of mine start knockin' sh** around the room at random! That's why you had me on disability, cos I couldn't WORk no' mo'!! And now they tellin' me that there's no insurance???"
"Well, in a manner of speaking, there still is. Only Crey Industries is paying the bill. We'll still administer it, send it to you... but you WILL need to check in with the lab downtown."
"What if I decide to NOT go along with this? You know, find another gig. He**, I get a stipend from the City now, it ain't much, but at least I got enough to pay the rent on a place, and bring food in. But, I like my jazz clubs, Doc. And I LIKE my condo. But this whole Crey business has me steamin', it really does!"
"Well, you COULD drop from the project, but your thesis would have to be abandoned, seeing as it's now become Crey IP, being related to the Muon Dampener project."
"Doc, you are just a BARREL of laughs today! You mean to tell me, that four YEARS of my life, MY effort, MY study, is going to some corporate pencil-pusher??? That ain't right, Doc. That ain't right!"
"You submitted it as part of the project, Kashaye. Your work was a large portion of what we were working to prove, and your ideas... well, your ideas were spot on. But we don't have control of the project anymore! and when they came and got the equipment, and the tissue samples, and all the data in the mainframe, they got your paper too. And I checked; they slapped this big 'Proprietary and Confidential' label on it, locked it up so tight I can't read it without some Crey bureaucrat standing behind me. They made me sign an NDA too! so technically if you weren't our chief lab rat around here, I'd be cashiered for talking to you about any of it. I'm surprised they haven't approached you about that."
"Doc, I ain't exactly been easy to reach, since signin' up with the City to do the hero gig... but if those jokers try and rope me in, I ain't signin' nuthin'!! I won't work with those eggheads, Doc! They got NO soul, NO vision for the future, all they're after is dollar signs. Uh uh, no way no how Kashaye Parker's working for THAT bunch! They'd have me in a jail cell in some lab someplace, or farm me out as one of their super-powered mercenaries. Uh uh! Soul Train's her OWN hero, and I'm my own woman! The Countess don't like it, she can come kiss my big fat a**!!!"
-slam!-
The doc shook his head. Too bad. Kashaye Parker wasn't going to be on the Crey Industries "A" list after all. He'd miss her.
But, then again, what Countess Crey wants, sooner or later, Countess Crey gets.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
(( NOTE: The real name of the character 'Soullll Trainnn' has been changed to Kashaye Parker - my earlier post on her origin had a different name.))
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Kashaye, I'm sorry, but your lab tests have been cancelled."
"Wait, hold up... Cancelled? Why?"
"Well, the whole Muon Dampener project is being... reassigned. So we don't have the funding or the equipment to try and recreate what happened to you."
"Doc, don't hand me that bulls***!! I was a top employee in this lab, and now ever since that da** subatomic muon-whatsis reactor of yours failed containment, I've been walking around acting like the bumpers in a pinball game! I NEED TO FIND OUT WHY!! What about the lab rats? Did we get anything from the experiments with the rats?"
"Shaye, all the rats died. You know that. And no, we don't know why. Their internal organs looked like something you'd find in a road-kill deer. Impact trauma. But no marks on the outside. One literally exploded in place like it'd been slammed up against a wall at 50mph for crissake!!"
"Yah I remember. That was bad. So you KNOW why I want to find out, right? I don't want to wake up some morning and find my spleen's been turned into jelly." Kashaye frowned. "Wait, you said 'reassigned.' To who?"
"Crey Industries."
"WHAT????? You mean to tell me, that that bit** the Countess is running this? I don't BELIEVE this!!"
"Well, not her particularly. It was a rider attached to Crey's endowment donations for the Institute. They reserved the right to select and administer certain research projects in ALL fields, not just physics... Kashaye, they're our biggest contributor, we can't just tell them 'No' when they see a project they like!"
"So, what does THIS mean fo' ME, Doc? I gotta go sign in over at Crey to get my insurance payments, now? Or get my three-times-a-month medical workup and CAT scans?"
"Ahh, well, the insurance has been dropped..."
"WHAT?????? You can't DO this to me Doc! I got bills to pay! I can't work no desk job, these powers of mine start knockin' sh** around the room at random! That's why you had me on disability, cos I couldn't WORk no' mo'!! And now they tellin' me that there's no insurance???"
"Well, in a manner of speaking, there still is. Only Crey Industries is paying the bill. We'll still administer it, send it to you... but you WILL need to check in with the lab downtown."
"What if I decide to NOT go along with this? You know, find another gig. He**, I get a stipend from the City now, it ain't much, but at least I got enough to pay the rent on a place, and bring food in. But, I like my jazz clubs, Doc. And I LIKE my condo. But this whole Crey business has me steamin', it really does!"
"Well, you COULD drop from the project, but your thesis would have to be abandoned, seeing as it's now become Crey IP, being related to the Muon Dampener project."
"Doc, you are just a BARREL of laughs today! You mean to tell me, that four YEARS of my life, MY effort, MY study, is going to some corporate pencil-pusher??? That ain't right, Doc. That ain't right!"
"You submitted it as part of the project, Kashaye. Your work was a large portion of what we were working to prove, and your ideas... well, your ideas were spot on. But we don't have control of the project anymore! and when they came and got the equipment, and the tissue samples, and all the data in the mainframe, they got your paper too. And I checked; they slapped this big 'Proprietary and Confidential' label on it, locked it up so tight I can't read it without some Crey bureaucrat standing behind me. They made me sign an NDA too! so technically if you weren't our chief lab rat around here, I'd be cashiered for talking to you about any of it. I'm surprised they haven't approached you about that."
"Doc, I ain't exactly been easy to reach, since signin' up with the City to do the hero gig... but if those jokers try and rope me in, I ain't signin' nuthin'!! I won't work with those eggheads, Doc! They got NO soul, NO vision for the future, all they're after is dollar signs. Uh uh, no way no how Kashaye Parker's working for THAT bunch! They'd have me in a jail cell in some lab someplace, or farm me out as one of their super-powered mercenaries. Uh uh! Soul Train's her OWN hero, and I'm my own woman! The Countess don't like it, she can come kiss my big fat a**!!!"
-slam!-
The doc shook his head. Too bad. Kashaye Parker wasn't going to be on the Crey Industries "A" list after all. He'd miss her.
But, then again, what Countess Crey wants, sooner or later, Countess Crey gets.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."