"Calypso Hawthorne, age, twenty. No siblings, father and mother deceased. No meta abilities manifesting at all, she's normal. Currently on a bio-genetics track at Paragon University, we have her currently working with a roboticist specializing in prosthetic applications and neural nets."
"Tell me about her ... other ... attributes."
"She is quite attractive. Outgoing, affectionate."
"Her compatibility with the subject?"
"Aside from the wrong hair color, she's matched up almost perfectly."
"We'll go with her, then. Reassign her to Psionics Research, and assign her to subject Robias as a 'medical attendant'."
------------------
The beast roared with rage, pain, and confusion. So far none of the hypnotic conditioning had worked at all, and contrary to the MRI scans, there seemed to be no ... sentience.. within its massive catlike face. Instead it was fueled by simple stimuli: hunger, and pain.
"I don't think this particular subject is viable. We cannot train it. We cannot even communicate."
"I'll reccommend that we terminate it.. but we shouldn't toss the millions spent in raising it from embryo. Perhaps we can get samples of the brain tissue once it's been put down. I'll start the paperwork... we'll only have to put up with it for another four weeks, at most."
---------------
"Alex?"
"Caly!! It's good to see you!"
The young man tilted his face up for the kiss. Alex Robias had been confined to this lab since... well, for as long as he could remember... and up until Calypso had appeared, he'd had little to motivate him. Experiments after experiments, all painful, all traumatic; itw as a wonder he was sane. Or, maybe he wasn't. But Caly was ... different. She ... was his friend.
no. Scratch that. He loved her. He didn't know WHY... but for the first time in his life, he went with his feelings, instead of his thoughts.
And she seemed to not care that he couldn't actually DO anything powerful.
Being the son of a Fortunata had been his undoing. When his parents had gone missing, supposedly killed by Arachnos for 'going Stateside' without permission, he'd barely been a week in the orphanage before being 'picked up' by the company. And that's when his 15 years of night mares had started. He'd been operated on, tested, subjected to radiation and electricity... all to supposedly 'awaken' his latent talents as a psionic warrior. But so far... nothing had worked. He could sometimes do mild predictions... see the future.. but then only vaguely, no real definition.
He occasionally had terrible dreams, ones where Caly was gone, and he was alone again.. but every morning she showed up, and in showing up, brought a smile to his face.
And then one day she'd shown up with blue hair. And on that day, he truly could say he loved her. She reminded him of his mother, Estrella. He still refused to believe she was dead; merely somewhere she couldn't reach him. But now this... He folded Calypso in a hug and kissed her, deeply, tenderly. And Caly returned it, with all the passion of a young girl in love.
--------------------
"Stage One has been achieved with the subject. It is good that we let this develop naturally, for our subject would surely see any subterfuge on young Hawthorn's part. Is all prepared for Stage Two?"
"We are still working on the particulars of the Stage Two test. but Biogenetics may have something we can use... a failed experiment that they are awaiting authorization to terminate."
"Good. Appropriate it. It sounds as if we can possibly get some use out of that, before it is written off."
----------------------
Calypso followed instructions she'd been given to meet Alex. She'd been told that this was a special day for him, so she was practically skipping down the corridor. She placed her hand on the lock scanner, and the heavy blast door irised open. "Alex?"
No reply. She walked into the room, which was bare except...
Alex. He was encased in a thick plexiglass globe, suspended off the floor by a few feet and gimballed so that the globe could turn him in any direction remotely... as it did now, to face her. His limbs were shackled to the chair inside, he was gagged... and his eyelids were taped open and his head restrained so that he couldn't move it at all.
"ALEX!"
An expression of pain crossed what she could see of his face.. pain that she saw him like this, pain that she was now part of the Testing... pain and.. grief.
She didn't have time to take a step as the door behind her irised shut... and then another irised open as Alex's globe turned to face it. From beyond came an enraged roar, and the crackling sound of taser bolts. Another bellow, and ... it lumbered out, the massive door behind it also irising shut.
No. Not 'it'. SHE.
She stood at over 8' tall, with dark brown/black fur, a felinoid face, the mouth open in a growl. As she turned to swat at the door, Alex and calypso saw the massive retrograded, clawed feet, the tail swishing back and forth for balance, and the clawed hands, each larger than Calypso's face.
She screamed, frozen in place, and the beast turned and roared a challenge, broke into a lope, then charged the girl even as the plexiglass ball rotated down and swung upward out of the way, ensuring Alex had full view of what was about to happen.
--------------
"EEG readings on the target have not changed. Perhaps there isn't anything there."
"His heart rate is off the scale, and he's losing bladder control. Told you we should have catheterized him."
"No matter, we'll clean it up afterwards. I still say he's a psionic."
-----------------
She... roared... in pain and in frustration. HUNGRY. She sniffed. Fear. PREY. She turned, and spotted her quarry. It made high picthed loud noise, which she answered, and broke into a run, intending to take the prey's head off with one swipe, and then feast on what was left.
=======
"NO!" Alex scremed into the gag. No no no, not her, not her, damn you! He frantically tred to 'lock down' the beast, but couldn't seem to get a lock on the brainstem. Caly he could sense, her terror was seeping into him, and he was finding it difficult to concentrate. And when the beast bowled her over and started to maul her, he experienced that too.
CALYPSO! Lover!! I'm here!! Follow me! Come on, you can do it! Her psyche latched onto his mind with the desperation of someone dangling from a ledge over a precipice. And even as she... died... he gathered more and more of her.. but soon found himself unable to continue.
He had to do something. he cast about, rapidly losing ground, feeling memories and experiences fade as he failed to hold them.
And came up short. There were no possible... locations.. to download Caly. Except...
=
She broke off in mid growl. This was... odd. Her prey tasted good, very fresh and young... but... she got the uncanny feeling that this was wrong. And suddenly, more feelings appeared.. guilt, concern, love. Language. Symbols. And in a steady stream, the mindset of a civilized beaing clicked into place inside her head. She howled.
==========
"It's blown. The girl is dead, and not a glimmer from our subject. Scrub it. Scrub them both."
===========
Alex felt his mind clearing, as Calypso's essence was literally dumped into the only vessel close by.. the beast. And ... he could feel her mind taking shape again below him. He dove back down the connection to what was his lover, a man rescuing someone from a house collapsing in ruin around him. He searched... he screamed, he ranted.. as brain cells died off, and with them, the memories that made Calypso Hawthorne who she was. All he was able to get were the last dregs of emotions... which he threw at the beast in a futile effort to preserve his love.
he barely noticed the ball lowering, and clam-shelling open. He didnt' see the tech hold a gun to his temple, nor hear the words that were spoken. "Cost overruns, buddy. Nothing personal."
------------
NO!! She roared in protest, and her.. hand.. belted the stranger across the side of the head, an audible 'snap' sounding as the figure ragdolled onto the floor. The gun skittered away. She saw the figure in the chair, and... this was HERS. This puny, weak figure... it was hers to protect... to love. She didn't know who he was, or why he was here. She didn't care. Massive hands snapped the locks loose, and strong sinewy arms hoisted him up and out to be cradled against her bosom. Blast doors were hammered and kicked until they bent and yielded, and everyone who stood in her way was shoved aside or hammered senseless... until the blast doors gave way to offices, panicked clerical workers, and finally... outside.
She didn't understand this place. Where was the roof? but the air smelled fresh and full of.. life... and she found herself bounding away over buildings, the semiconscious Alex Robias clinging to her.
-------------
Alex Robias aka Lord Phantasm and Calypso Hawthorne aka Primal Roar are on the triumph server, as a psy/ice dominator and a superstrength/energy aura brute, respectively.
"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."
"Calypso Hawthorne, age, twenty. No siblings, father and mother deceased. No meta abilities manifesting at all, she's normal. Currently on a bio-genetics track at Paragon University, we have her currently working with a roboticist specializing in prosthetic applications and neural nets."
"Tell me about her ... other ... attributes."
"She is quite attractive. Outgoing, affectionate."
"Her compatibility with the subject?"
"Aside from the wrong hair color, she's matched up almost perfectly."
"We'll go with her, then. Reassign her to Psionics Research, and assign her to subject Robias as a 'medical attendant'."
------------------
The beast roared with rage, pain, and confusion. So far none of the hypnotic conditioning had worked at all, and contrary to the MRI scans, there seemed to be no ... sentience.. within its massive catlike face. Instead it was fueled by simple stimuli: hunger, and pain.
"I don't think this particular subject is viable. We cannot train it. We cannot even communicate."
"I'll reccommend that we terminate it.. but we shouldn't toss the millions spent in raising it from embryo. Perhaps we can get samples of the brain tissue once it's been put down. I'll start the paperwork... we'll only have to put up with it for another four weeks, at most."
---------------
"Alex?"
"Caly!! It's good to see you!"
The young man tilted his face up for the kiss. Alex Robias had been confined to this lab since... well, for as long as he could remember... and up until Calypso had appeared, he'd had little to motivate him. Experiments after experiments, all painful, all traumatic; itw as a wonder he was sane. Or, maybe he wasn't. But Caly was ... different. She ... was his friend.
no. Scratch that. He loved her. He didn't know WHY... but for the first time in his life, he went with his feelings, instead of his thoughts.
And she seemed to not care that he couldn't actually DO anything powerful.
Being the son of a Fortunata had been his undoing. When his parents had gone missing, supposedly killed by Arachnos for 'going Stateside' without permission, he'd barely been a week in the orphanage before being 'picked up' by the company. And that's when his 15 years of night mares had started. He'd been operated on, tested, subjected to radiation and electricity... all to supposedly 'awaken' his latent talents as a psionic warrior. But so far... nothing had worked. He could sometimes do mild predictions... see the future.. but then only vaguely, no real definition.
He occasionally had terrible dreams, ones where Caly was gone, and he was alone again.. but every morning she showed up, and in showing up, brought a smile to his face.
And then one day she'd shown up with blue hair. And on that day, he truly could say he loved her. She reminded him of his mother, Estrella. He still refused to believe she was dead; merely somewhere she couldn't reach him. But now this... He folded Calypso in a hug and kissed her, deeply, tenderly. And Caly returned it, with all the passion of a young girl in love.
--------------------
"Stage One has been achieved with the subject. It is good that we let this develop naturally, for our subject would surely see any subterfuge on young Hawthorn's part. Is all prepared for Stage Two?"
"We are still working on the particulars of the Stage Two test. but Biogenetics may have something we can use... a failed experiment that they are awaiting authorization to terminate."
"Good. Appropriate it. It sounds as if we can possibly get some use out of that, before it is written off."
----------------------
Calypso followed instructions she'd been given to meet Alex. She'd been told that this was a special day for him, so she was practically skipping down the corridor. She placed her hand on the lock scanner, and the heavy blast door irised open. "Alex?"
No reply. She walked into the room, which was bare except...
Alex. He was encased in a thick plexiglass globe, suspended off the floor by a few feet and gimballed so that the globe could turn him in any direction remotely... as it did now, to face her. His limbs were shackled to the chair inside, he was gagged... and his eyelids were taped open and his head restrained so that he couldn't move it at all.
"ALEX!"
An expression of pain crossed what she could see of his face.. pain that she saw him like this, pain that she was now part of the Testing... pain and.. grief.
She didn't have time to take a step as the door behind her irised shut... and then another irised open as Alex's globe turned to face it. From beyond came an enraged roar, and the crackling sound of taser bolts. Another bellow, and ... it lumbered out, the massive door behind it also irising shut.
No. Not 'it'. SHE.
She stood at over 8' tall, with dark brown/black fur, a felinoid face, the mouth open in a growl. As she turned to swat at the door, Alex and calypso saw the massive retrograded, clawed feet, the tail swishing back and forth for balance, and the clawed hands, each larger than Calypso's face.
She screamed, frozen in place, and the beast turned and roared a challenge, broke into a lope, then charged the girl even as the plexiglass ball rotated down and swung upward out of the way, ensuring Alex had full view of what was about to happen.
--------------
"EEG readings on the target have not changed. Perhaps there isn't anything there."
"His heart rate is off the scale, and he's losing bladder control. Told you we should have catheterized him."
"No matter, we'll clean it up afterwards. I still say he's a psionic."
-----------------
She... roared... in pain and in frustration. HUNGRY. She sniffed. Fear. PREY. She turned, and spotted her quarry. It made high picthed loud noise, which she answered, and broke into a run, intending to take the prey's head off with one swipe, and then feast on what was left.
=======
"NO!" Alex scremed into the gag. No no no, not her, not her, damn you! He frantically tred to 'lock down' the beast, but couldn't seem to get a lock on the brainstem. Caly he could sense, her terror was seeping into him, and he was finding it difficult to concentrate. And when the beast bowled her over and started to maul her, he experienced that too.
CALYPSO! Lover!! I'm here!! Follow me! Come on, you can do it! Her psyche latched onto his mind with the desperation of someone dangling from a ledge over a precipice. And even as she... died... he gathered more and more of her.. but soon found himself unable to continue.
He had to do something. he cast about, rapidly losing ground, feeling memories and experiences fade as he failed to hold them.
And came up short. There were no possible... locations.. to download Caly. Except...
=
She broke off in mid growl. This was... odd. Her prey tasted good, very fresh and young... but... she got the uncanny feeling that this was wrong. And suddenly, more feelings appeared.. guilt, concern, love. Language. Symbols. And in a steady stream, the mindset of a civilized beaing clicked into place inside her head. She howled.
==========
"It's blown. The girl is dead, and not a glimmer from our subject. Scrub it. Scrub them both."
===========
Alex felt his mind clearing, as Calypso's essence was literally dumped into the only vessel close by.. the beast. And ... he could feel her mind taking shape again below him. He dove back down the connection to what was his lover, a man rescuing someone from a house collapsing in ruin around him. He searched... he screamed, he ranted.. as brain cells died off, and with them, the memories that made Calypso Hawthorne who she was. All he was able to get were the last dregs of emotions... which he threw at the beast in a futile effort to preserve his love.
he barely noticed the ball lowering, and clam-shelling open. He didnt' see the tech hold a gun to his temple, nor hear the words that were spoken. "Cost overruns, buddy. Nothing personal."
------------
NO!! She roared in protest, and her.. hand.. belted the stranger across the side of the head, an audible 'snap' sounding as the figure ragdolled onto the floor. The gun skittered away. She saw the figure in the chair, and... this was HERS. This puny, weak figure... it was hers to protect... to love. She didn't know who he was, or why he was here. She didn't care. Massive hands snapped the locks loose, and strong sinewy arms hoisted him up and out to be cradled against her bosom. Blast doors were hammered and kicked until they bent and yielded, and everyone who stood in her way was shoved aside or hammered senseless... until the blast doors gave way to offices, panicked clerical workers, and finally... outside.
She didn't understand this place. Where was the roof? but the air smelled fresh and full of.. life... and she found herself bounding away over buildings, the semiconscious Alex Robias clinging to her.
-------------
Alex Robias aka Lord Phantasm and Calypso Hawthorne aka Primal Roar are on the triumph server, as a psy/ice dominator and a superstrength/energy aura brute, respectively.
"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."