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."
The sirens glinting off the tinted glass of Red Commissars modified mask goggles as he poured over a map, silent rage of how despite several heroes searchings of the Steel Canyon area could have allowed this to happen, behind him a mixed group of PPD Officers, Heroes and Medical Personel were gearing up to brave the nicknamed deadzone of the city.
Infront of him was a crude barrier of cars and busses as well as anything else that could have been put up in short notice, a huge portion of the gas had spread from the centre of Steel Canyon, thus causing a series of maze like barricades and pockets of besieged resistince fighting off the chemically enraged.
Sasha clinked loudly against his back has he moved, it was non lethal tonight. He was going to finally use that net gun attachment. He brooded for a moment, despite the small victory of locating one of the mans bombs under Portal Corp in Peregrine Island and the fact each one now seemed to have a unique poison this was far from over.
Around 8:30 in Steel
Lucy was in steel she quickly changed in to her out fit and rallied local force to try and contain the outbreak while checking in with Red via phone. "Red I can't find away to slow him or subdue him with my skills, but we might be able to locate him by tracking the career waves from the bombs there remotely activated just have to trace them to the source." She hung up and blast a near by enraged citizen with hard light cause then to go down blinded for a shot time
Ashlee was elsewhere. Elsewhere at the time being somewhere even she didn't know the location of.. The constantly flickering image of the Black and White clad heroine was stood above the buildings of steel canyon watching the others, talking quietly to the blue wisp beside her. "I wonder how long this is going to go on for..The entire city maybe? And all I can do is stand back and watch, this is fun...really." She let out a sigh looking down at the street "It's not the same when you can't feel the wind running through your hair or your cape brushing against your back. But aslong as my physical body remains unconcious..."
Jinxing herself was the last thing she wanted to do, but as untimly situations do work, right now was just a spot of bad luck for her, as the holographic flickering of her body became worse, hands firmly planted against her head "I don't want to go back dammit! Stay Unconcio---." before disappearing out of sight.
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.
James had been in his Bunker in Founders Falls when the first calls were received by the PPD and Longbow.
At 9:05 James' secure line rang. Groggy he sat up, it had been a rough night fighting Crey. He picked up the ear piece and popped it in. "James Robinson." He waited for the response.
"Morning James, just over an hour ago, we began receiving calls from the public, we have incidents in both Kings Row and Steel Canyon, both have an unknown gas spreading in the area. All we know is that Steel's gas is affecting the population on a mental level, they loose all self control and attack anyone or anything nearby. As for Kings, we have reports that it kills, fast, other than that nothing."
"Understood, I'll head on over to Steel, its a central part of the city."
"Agreed, reports have began filtering in from Talos, IP and Atlas. We need to find out who, or what is causing it, and stop it."
"Thanks Bill, talk to you when I know more." he hung up the phone and turned to his locker. He tapped in his code and stepped back as the door slid open. He stepped into his suit and as teh helmet slid on he smiled. "Morning James"
"Morning Control. Lets go to work." he looked up as his wings folded out and the jets on his feet fired.
"Send a transmission on all frequencies available in Steel Canyon, Heavy Ordinance is on route." he kicked the jets up a notch and grinned as he hit the top speed.
A tasered henchman of Spruks danced like a freaked marionette, and then started to collapse to the ground.
"OhNoNoNoNo!" Redefette shouted and ran to take his fall, trying to prevent him from hurting himself. Unfortunately for Redefette, the henchman overweighted her a lot and she was almost completely buried under his colossal figure. After a brief, silent moment Redefette squirmed and wriggled herself free under the unconscious mass of the henchman. She stood up, making sure no-one heard, let alone saw, this rather unpleasant incident, and then she kneeled next to the henchman.
"Why did'nt you listen to me?" she asked the unconscious henchman, taking a gun from his hand, and stucking that gun back into his shoulder holster: "I was not going to send you to prison, I just wanted you to relay a message."
She rummaged his pockets, and found his cell-phone. With a victorious smile on her face, she started to browse the address book of the cell-phone.
"DeeDeeDeeDee...oh? No David? Ok, what about S.. S.. S.. Hrumph. No Spruk, either. How about Bee bee bee bee... oh dang. No boss."
Redefette lowered the cell-phone and pouted, looking at the unconscious henchman with displeasure. Then she stucked the cellphone back into a jacket pocket of the henchman. Then she stood up. For a moment, she rubbed her chin like she was pondering something. Then she pulled out something out of her utility belt pockets. It looked something like a half-inch wide, and couple of inches long cylinder.
Redefette sat on top of the henchmans stomach and pulled the cork off the cylinder with her teeth, muttering: "One way or the other you WILL take my message to him..."
Inside her lab on the station Lucy found the signal used by Spruk to detonate the bombs. "Okay now to trace it back, Comms?"
"Yes Lucy?"
"I need to you to trace this signal to it's source, and prep the transport for the location"
"Right away Lucy, would you like me to inform Sean or Gem about this?"
"No Comms not yet, tell them after I ring Red"
"very well Lucy, the signal has be traced and the transport is prepared, will there be anything else?"
"No thanks Comms that be all."
"very well Lucy, good luck on your journey." She walks off to the transport and cloaks herself. "Okay, ready Comms" and Comms beams her down.
Lucy crept past the guards, which were sat watching the Television, talking about a how the day was boring and wishing for something to happen. Lucy turned the corner carefully and walked straight then turned left into the interrogation room. Her eyes widened with fear and disgust at what was left on the table. She quickly unchained what was left of Ef and hid him in a veil of light so his teleporting to the station's med bay would go unnoticed. She then looked for Catz, finding her nearby, chained to the wall and heavily drugged. She created an illusion of Catz in that position before unchaining her and tagging her with a medical teleporter to the station as well.
Lucy breathed a sigh of relief, "that was easy" she thought. As she walked back to the door, she froze as Spruk passed her and gazed at her location, making a shiver run down her spine. She made it to the door then collapsed after hearing a roar and scream from Spurk, calling for the guards scattered around the building.
High above jumping carefully between the tallest buildings, high above the level of where the gas should be able to reach, a flicker of a cloaked person appeared. Each jump caused the cloak to flick as it adjusted to the change of light and background.
"So.. now, this must be the most boring job to do from them yet." The person moaned as they landed on a lower roof, " I mean it's not like I can have any fun, it's just get in.. watch.. and report back. I can do so much more.. hell I could of done a few killings.. maybe take care of a few her-"
The person frose as they step around the corner of he building roof, they came face to face with one of the Heroes of the city, one dressed somewhat like a catgirl in black a white. quickly the person ducked back around the corner then after a few moments peered back around the corner to see the Heroine was gone.
"... that.. was close." the person said walking fully out, "Almost walked right into her, and I really wouldn't want a repeat of the last time I was in this damn city, one bolt is enough for me."
Shaking their head quickly as the Cloak flicker adjusted again, they ran to the edge of the building a lepted a few more buildings before coming to another stop at a lower building, slowly walking to the edge of it's roof ledge before crouching down and looking down at the street below.
"Well looks like the gas is working away, and ooo.. lookie.. a nice hero going for a walk in it, hmm.. maybe I might just get a bit of fun afterall.."
The skyscrapers of Steel Canyon rose high above the carnage filled streets. The main roads were littered with people fighting. Gunshots rang through the streets, screams and yelling filling the air along with the scent of blood, fear and rage.
A gang member ran past the alleyway, worry visible through the sweat as he ran. Pausing momentarily he decided that the alley was a better idea than the open street. As he heard the footsteps behind him he sped up, running around the corner. Only for him to stop dead. It was blocked. The was a dead end and there was nothing back here to help get over the wall. Not even dustbins. Not even a hobo to pay to give him a leg-up. Too late.
The heavy breathing behind him was possibly the scariest thing he'd heard in a long time. The slow, ragged breaths as the man shuffled around the corner, his white shirt stained red, his black working trousers ripped, the pistol in his hand shaking uncontrollably.
The worst part however was his face. The incessant nervous chuckling began again as he saw the gang member at the end of the alley, the twisted grin getting slowly wider as he began to pick up speed. His eyes, empty of humanity and filled instead with madness, anger and a hint of amusement.
"Y-y-you've plagued our city for t-t-too long... I-I'm the h-hero now... hehe... n-n-now I have the p-power..."
He raised the pistol at the gang member, trying to aim despite all the shaking, still advancing. The first shot hit the brickwork behind the gang member, who ducked instinctively. The second shot never came. From nowhere a figure appeared, seemingly fading into sight behind the deranged civilian. Clad in bulky armour, mostly black save for patches of dark green, a row of lights along the side of the helmet. It looks like Arachnos armour but... modified. Silently a large green power mace was drawn, large sharp fins surrounding a hole at the top. With a sudden swish the mace smacked the unknowing civilian in the back of the head, the metal just below the fins making a pleasant crunch as it connected with the back of the mans skull.
The suited figure rolled over the collapsed body and began humming to itself. The tune was pleasant and a little jaunty, checking the injury before a small capsule into the mans mouth. The figure suddenly noticed the gang member against the wall, and casually walked over to him.
The voice from the figure seemed somewhat metallic and static, but on the whole rather cheerful and high pitched despite the imposing armour.
"Hello there! You don't seem to be affected by this out brake of infectious disease. It's all rather interesting isn't it! I must admit, I didn't think Spruk was the sort of person to make something so well conceived! Still, he seems to not like me very much, so I doubt I'll get to talk to him..."
The ganger looked past the armoured figure to the unconscious man on the floor behind him and decided he didn't want to hang around. Suddenly he tried to push past the armoured figure and escape, but a metal gang grabbed him arm with a strength far greater than his own.
"Oh I'm sorry, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. Here, if you don't want to be infected by this terrible, terrible disease then just take this capsule! You'll be completely safe from the disease I assure you."
The ganger looked worried "Heh, no thanks man, really, I just need to... uh.. get home, to my uhh... family you know? Yeah. Eheh."
The suit nodded for a second, then without losing any of it's cheerfulness it replied "I see. Well you have a choice. I can either have you take that capsule or I can knock you unconscious with your friend there, then take you both back to my lab to observe what happens to somebody when attacked! Really, it's no problem! After all if you don't want to be immune, obviously you want to be infected by this virus!"
The ganger gave him a worried grin "Oh okay man, I'll take your pill, sure, no problem, I don't wanna die, you know?"
As he popped the capsule into his mouth and swallowed it with a nervous laugh, he made to leave, trying to pull away from the crazy metal clad figure, but the arm held him in place.
The metallic voice laughed "Oh, you misunderstood! You won't survive! No no, you're simply furthering the cause of science by dying in a way that is more useful to me. You see I've been refining BX52C9 for some time, and really needed a test subject! So you see you'll be immune to this disease, because you'll be too busy dying from this instead!" the suit laughed "Hah! Funny how these things turn out hm?"
It opened a compartment and took out a clipboard and pen.
"Now, tell me, do you feel in any way nauseous? Extreme headache perhaps? Losing feeling in any limbs?" the voice remained very cheerful as it carefully prepared to take notes. Neurocide preferred it when they took it willingly. Struggling is such a bore.
A shot rang out in the still darkness above some buildings in Galaxy City. Then a shape tumbled off a roof, rolling and trying to put a small fire out of his awkward looking clothes before he landed in a handy open dumpster that was below the squat single floored shop. Brief fuzzy movement in the still air of the taller Apartment block overlooking the shop signalled as if somebody was fiddling with a catch on his weapon. Those experimental incendiary bullets did work. Good.
Peering into the Dumpster through his cloak on a taller building and zooming in, Red Commissar noted the 3rd Cheap Assassin was in fact even worse than the 2nd one Spruk had sent after him. The 1st one was busy still being chased by either Redeffete or Jess. Glancing at his Communicator briefly he noted for once there was good news as Catz and Ef had been located.
He stepped off the roof and activated the anti-grav thrusters built into the soles of his boots and landed smoothly onto the ground as if it were a normal jump from a step not a floor and decloaked himself, slinging his AR and approaching the stunned Assassin trying his best to untangle himself from the rubbish.
"Comrade. Lets talk business..." he stated....
On the Isles..
Spruk was busy, hunched over his work table with bomb parts spread out, ready to be put together. He heard the ruckuss of some of his gang behind him, watching the television, the fake laughter, swigging of beer, creaking wood.. Creaking wood? He turned to look around the room, "Is she here unannounced?" he thought to himself.
There was noone there but his lackies, must have been the wind. Sighing he reached to his table, picking up a cordless power drill and making his way slowly down the hall. A chill fell down his spine, causing his gaze to move to the wall, a feeling of deja-vu taking him, but he carried on to the holding room.
Spruk looked down to the captive hero Efranof, revving the power drill, "Wakey wakey you ****ing goth.. Hey, I'm talking to you!" He plugned the drill down into the illusion's chest, going straight through to the table. Feelings of shock and anger took him, he threw the drill behind him towards Catz, but she wasn't there either.
Moving his hands through the Ef light duplicate to double check, he screamed out as a potent knockout gas shot from his body, "THEY'RE GONE! FIND THEM, FIND WHOEVER DID THIS!"
Having woken up the thugs who weren't immune to his basic drugs, Spruk was called over to the front door, some of his minor henchmen holding up the drugged heroine. "Put her on the slab and get out, come back tomorrow, I'll have a body for you to dispose of." They dragged her over to the bloodied table as Spruk headed to a weapon bin, taking out a machete and baseball bat.
-----------------------
In Galaxy City, a hired goon with more bullets than brains was setting up waiting for his first real target. This is it, first step to big money he thought as he fumbled with the cheap rifle, quickly remembering that the scope goes on the other way around, when his clothes burst into flame.
He dropped to the ground and rolled, trying to put it out, then found out it was a bad idea when he found himself over the edge and into a dumpster. Trying to get out but repeatedly slipping on the rubbish and finding himself caught, he panicked as his target, Red Commissar, uncloaked and looked at him.
"Comrade. Lets talk business.." The masked figure said. All he could do was stutter the reply "I I I I I uh oh G-God don't hurt me!"
-----------------------
The situation in Steel was starting to become contained, some of the first infected slowly regaining their humanity, but more were being attacked and infected. Reports in Talos were quickly seen to and contained, but Independence Port and Atlas were still under threat.
I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc
Heavy Ordinance was half a mile from the worst effected area when a call came through to his coms unit.
"James, its Control. The situation in Steel Canyon has stabilised, we need to to head for Atlas." He hit the air brakes and his wings beat twice as he banked to the right.
"Roger that Control, On Route to Atlas."
It was dark, almost Midnight as Red Commissar waited in the shadow of the huge penny outside the PPD Headquarters, shifting in his stance knowing that somewhere in the dark in the area Beet was patiently lurking ready to give a hand if things got rough. A shape in a ratty grey trenchcoat loomed throughout the darkness, the owner glancing over his shoulders was clearly extremely nervous.
"I g-got what I could man..." he hissed nervously, said the man peeking from the lapels. It had been the two bit Assassin one of several set after Red Commissar in the first few weeks.
Red Commissar nodded and from out behind the other side of the Penny came a PPD Detective. The nervous man almost jumped out of his coat when the sleeve of his coat was seized, dropping the badly folded up yellowing piece of paper on the ground. Red Commissar bent down and picked it up. It was a simple Telephone numbers. He smiled under the mask as the PPD led the Assassin into the PPD HQ for the Paragon Witness Protection Program.
"Beet, ve have a number. Give me your location, ve must discuss further matters..."
Moaning lightly and shaking her head, she became aware of her situation, her attention however was taken by the figure now looming over her. Spruk grinned, his rotting leather mask covering his exposed muscle distorted with his horrifically mutilated bone structure.
Still light headed from the drugs, Lucy was able to say "Please.. Don't do this.. Please.." But her pleads were not heard as the villain raised a baseball bat.
Redefette stood next to cuffed Spruk and stared at Catz. Suddenly, voice in Redefette's head informed her of a laser operated targetting beam, sounded a warning and gave her bearing of the beam origin. Redefette looked up and zoomed into a barrel of a sniper rifle. Or cannon, to be more precice. There was a muzzle flash.
"WATCH OUT!" Redefette screamed to Catz and jumped up to avoid-
She woke up hearing three short beeps in her head. She was lying on grass next to a building she didn't really remember seen before. Her vision was filled with red retangles with flashing borders, text informing her of massive tissue trauma in lower abdomen and significant blood loss. Voice in her head said something about morphine and teleportation to nearest hospital.
"No..." she whispered and tried to get up. She wasn't able. All she could do was to turn on her back, and look at the wound. It was leaking blood. She whimpered and reached into one of her belt pockets, taking out a device that resembled a cell-phone. She activated it, and blocked the teleportation signal from locking into her.
"David is here disguised as Ef. He can walk into a hospital. I can't go there. I must hide."
She grimaced and forced herself to cloak. She wasn't able to turn properly invisible. But she knew she had to hide.
She heard voices of Catz. But also voices of Spruk. They were not near, but she heard them. Redefette took out a communicator from her belt pocket and tried to call the Roost for help, just hearing static noise as response.
"Oh no! I'm jamming my own communicator!" she thought and tried to reach for her jamming device, but her strength were gone. She started to slip into unconsciousness.
She heard Spruk shouting someone called Kem to assist him.
Catz. She was somewhere near.
Again Spruk, this time more near.
Redefette felt someone picking her up from the ground.
"He got me." she thought and forced herself to open her eyes. She saw glimpses of his fleshless face, and green hair as he carried her limb body to somewhere.
"No..." she whispered.
"You are badly hurt. I will take you to hospital."
Familiar voice... but who? Not Spruk... who?
Redefette tried once again open her eyes. Long white hair, not green hair. White hair.
"No. Don't... no.. hospital... to the Roost...please"
He didn't answer. But somehow Redefette knew he was taking her to Roost now. She now remembered who that man was. She smiled and passed out.
The sniper shots had rang through the air before Ashlee has time to even react, one bullet cut across her face leaving a bloody graze along her cheek, the rest cut into her costume at various places, doing little damage other then scraping away a small layer of skin.
Before Spruk could get to far she chased him down and finally came to confront him, between them a Civilian and a Hellion... Spruk took down the Hellion before moving onto the Civillian, keeping them stood still. Time ran slow, but the luck of a friendly figure appearing behind Spruk changed the outcome of things "You get Spruk, I'll get the Civillian!" Ashlee dived round to catch the civi and pop her own Medi-port on his suit jacket. Spruk hit the deck, grinning to himself before coughing up a noxious gas.
It wasn't long before it took effect, Spruk sprinting off in the other direction to leave Ashlee physically coughing up a lung and vomiting, another chance to catch Spruk thrown away as she was ported to the Supergroup medical bay.
Spruk had escaped, but only just. He was sloppy with his venture into Paragon.. But he did get to plant some more bombs, at the loss of his favorite weapons, but he'll just have to find them after the plan is finished.
Maybe.
By the morning, he was back on the Isles, with his latest hostage to keep him company. He'd already broken her, beaten her senseless, poisoned her to the brink of death.. But he kept her alive, to feel every second of it, it's the least he could do.
But it wasn't enough, he wanted more, needed more. Sure, he's killed Heroes before, but they were just cannon fodder, a passing fling to him. Spruk sat down on a chair to think, could he go back to Paragon? Would it be too risky? Could he get his guns back at the same time? Who would he take, and how?
The broken Lucy stirred, reminding Spruk of his favorite passtime. He stood and picked up the chair, walking towards his stress relief. "Good morning kids! Do you know what time it is?" He grinned after saying those words, the chair poised above his head to strike.
-----------------------
The outbreak in Paragon took a turn for the peculiar as those infected started flogging for alleyways, sewers and any retreats they can. Those making it would disappear among the scum, presumably killed by the villainy who dwell beneath the city.
I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc
Redefette's phone beeped as a signal of a received message. Redefette lifted her welding goggles on her forehead and stopped casting something. She walked from a forge to the phone and looked at a picture, received from Spruk. Then she dialed his number and called him.
"Let her go of the table, give her clothes and food, heal her and give her a bed to sleep in. You did read what my message said and I mean it."
Spruk tried to say something to her as a response, but Redefette interrupted him quickly:
"At the moment your guns are in better shape than Lucy. You can either make Lucy in better shape or I can make your guns match Lucy's current condition, it's your choise."
She ended the call before he could even answer again, and then she went back to her forge, murmuring: "...your precious guns will look exactly like Lucy..."
1am, Steel Canyon, 6th July
Very few were out that night, so why it would happen then is a mystery. Around Steel Canyon, trash cans, mail boxes and broken street lights made a light hissing sound for 60 seconds which, to the few drunk civilians and villains, wouldn't have raised suspicion, nor kept in their memory for long.
The mysterious gas rose around the buildings, slipping in through windows onto the sleeping masses, it's effects unseen and unknown.
Untill the next morning. Growls of anger slowly littered the streets, screams of fear and pain rang in the air as those who had been infected by the toxin attacked others in the street, enraged by the drugs in their system, all other emotions numbed, all feelings of pain subsided, and it was slowly spreading to other areas as reports came in from Talos, Independence Port and Atlas.
On the Isles, Spruk sat at his television, watching some of the carnage on the streets of Steel. His cameraman blending in with a small group of news teams being protected by PPD. A growl occurs off camera, it swings around to see what it was, just catching a glimpse of one of the PPD officers blasting the head of another cameraman with his shotgun, the camera quickly turns off.
In the background, one of Spruk's captives began to wake up, hearing the screams from the television. "Aah, you're up eh? You look tired, maybe you need something to make you alert.." He reached for his scalpel, casually walking over to the victim.
(( The effects of the gas would've kicked in by about 8am, calls to the PPD and Longbow by 9. It's effects are similar to a zombie virus, increasing aggressiveness and taking away rational thought, it can be transferred by bodily fluids (blood, saliva ect) or open wounds. The toxin will be in their blood, so scientists feel free to try and take a sample to try and get a cure. ))
I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc