Futuristic Arcadia: Heroes World Brave

[PiePillager]

"TRIIIIICERA-TORPEDO!" Sakinder's belt shouted as he shifted forms again upon the bike, using his shield to block the volleys of salt as he circled around Akiko, drifting across the floor and leaning to the side as he used his machinegun sidearm to fire a volley of shots at her.

***

"..." Chao Nong's body silently folded his arms in annoyance at Suna's antics. His foot quickly split apart, revealing a chainsaw intent on sawing Suna's hand off. As for his head, he screamed a mere, "Brother...a little assistance?"

"What was that before about you havin' to do all the work?" Hen Xin raised a hand to his ear as he raised a foot to attempt to kick Muna away from him. " 'Sides I got my own trouble here!"

"Is now really the time?!" Chao Nong screamed.

"Alright, I hear ya!" Hen Xin noted, a compartment opening on his back as something fell out. A discolored lumped in the shape of a...human heart. In fact, it was a heart, though obviously no ordinary one as it began to sprout arms and legs as it stood upright, taking on a fighting pose as it spun around and leaped at Yamato, launching a kick to his gut in an attempt to get him to drop Chao Nong's head.

Chao Nong and Hen Xin, despite their struggle, attempted to hold their necromancy spell steady.

 

[DarKnight36]

The chainsaw blade clogged in Suna's shadows before it could even spin. "Having a heart attack?" Suna asked Yamato, laughing. "Pretty annoying, aren't they?"

Suna spread his fingers, shadows spreading like spiderwebs across the room, grasping at the two Zhao brothers. "I really think the two of you have outstayed your welcome, don't you think?" Suna grasped the shadows in both hands, and began pulling, the sticky shadows beginning to drag the undead warriors away.

 

[druidquest]

Lynne followed Henry's gaze to the other hazmat workers, tending to something across the ward. Swapping name tags, huh. She tapped a finger against the bottom of her suit's face plate in consideration, then waltzed past Henry, going right over to the guys he'd taken note of.

"G'day mates!" She greeted in a loud Australian drawl, slapping one of them on the back of his shoulder. He turned to look at her, completely missing the blur of her left hand.

"What do you want?" he grumbled, shrugging her off him.

"Youse hear 'bout that bloody great ruckus up top? Got the bosses mad as a cut snake," Lynne continued, ignoring the displeased looks on their faces as she threw her arm around another of the workers. "Got the Sheilas up top evacuatin' an' all, fair dinkum!" The man groaned and pushed her off. Lynne's hand slipped around her back. "Might wanna think about joinin' em, right? In case they get down here or somethin'." Something shook the ground above them, as if to punctuate her point.

The workers looked up at the ceiling apprehensively. The first rumble was joined by a second after a brief moment, making the lights flicker briefly. It was ultimately still silent down here, but Lynne didn't miss the looks exchanged behind the hazmat suits.

"As if," one said with a nearly-convinced scoff. "No one's getting down here, and they wouldn't be getting out if they did."

"Y-yeah," another agreed, turning away from Lynne. "Not while the Doc's here, right? Evacuate yourself if you're so scared. We're working."

"Yeah. and quit the accent before someone slugs ya," the last man finished, waving her off. "Fucking Americans, I swear."

"Was just makin' conversation, is all," Lynne said to excuse herself, stepping away from the trio.

She turned on the ball of her foot and rejoined Henry by the nuclear super, bringing up the swiped IDs between them when she was close enough that no one would see. She wondered if her heartbeat was audible through the suit. "Yi Tao and David," she whispered, offering the tags to her partner in crime. "Which do you want?"

 

[Wing06]

Yamato was sure even the severed head of Chao Nong facepalmed at Suna's pun, "Just hurry up and eradicate that thing!" He managed to maintain his grip on Chao's head while taking quick kicks at the Heart before Suna's powers went to work, entangling the bothers' bodies, including the heart. Yamato almost felt sorry for the organ as it fought unsuccessfully. "Should I just toss this on the ground then?" Yamato inquired, swinging Chao Nong's head in Suna's direction.

 

[PiePillager]

"Let's go with David," Henry stated after a few seconds, unsure if he could manage an accent in case Yi Tao had one, but he figured he'd play it safe. "There were three blast doors, right?" he asked. "I'm guessing we just make our way through and hopefully pick the right one..." he said, as he began making his way back towards the way they came. In order to avoid the agitated supervisor, Henry opted to go in whichever direction he wasn't facing in order to proceed to the entrance.

Heading past the entrance, Henry offered a wave to the security officer posted at the door. "Okay...RDR-01938-B. LZS 15591-G. SLM-22345-D. Not sure what any of those mean, but, uh... Let's try RDR first, I guess," he quickly decided.

***
"Well...we had to rush things along but..." Chao Nong began.

"What's done is done!" Hen Xin concluded as the miasma of necromancy dispersed and exiting from it was a bright green orb that shone a brilliant light. It was bright enough to weaken the shadows that held the brothers...and their assorted detached body parts, in place. Chao Nong's body used this opportunity to snatch his cranium back and kick Sunaarashi in the face with his non-chainsaw leg.

Hen Xin scooped up the orb and both brothers backflipped away from Lin's "children". He shook the orb and frowned. "Didn't catch all of it., thanks to the blue one. Still, Lin's a husk. And we have enough of his soul to act as suitable repayment. Hen Xin turned around as he heard the sound of sirens outside. "Just what we need...."
"And you can be sure, there'll be heroes right behind them..." Chao Nong noted with a sneer. "Best we made our leave..." and with that said, the two brothers rolled backwards, smashing through the restaurant's windows. Both made a point to stomp on the ambulances and police cars that had gathered near the restaurant, nearly crushing the vehicles and their occupants before making a great leap and hopping from building to building, eventually fading from sight, leaving the crowd now gathered on the street to wonder just what sort of battle had occurred inside the restaurant.

 

[druidquest]

The heavy blast door marked RDR-01938-B sat closest to the elevator of the three they had passed. It was unguarded like its siblings, something that on second glance struck Lynne as strange, especially compared to the far less ethically compromising ward they had just come from. The impassive metallic face of the bulkhead was easily three or four heads taller than either of them, utterly featureless beyond the small plaque bearing its serial number and the ID scanner sitting next to it.

Lynne looked it over, checking if there was anything about it hidden out of sight, but it seemed... straightforward. She looked her stolen ID over for a moment's hesitation, then placed it gingerly against the scanner, half-expecting it to be rejected. What were the odds a random swiped name tag would have the clearance needed to access the big scary blast doors, right?

There was a long, long pause after she pulled the ID away. Lynne looked to Henry, then at the elevator they'd come from, then back down the hall toward the medical ward with the radioactive supers. It... didn't seem like any guards were coming. No alarm had been tripped then, right? So her ID must have just been rejec-

Air hissed as the blast door depressurized, sitting for several seconds before slowly beginning to roll open. Lynne raised a hand over her covered face, almost expecting something to leap out at them, but there was nothing. Just a short sanitized hall leading to heavy plastic curtains and... singing.

Sans fausser;
Car mi penser,
Mi souvenir,
Mi plaisir...​

Lynne's feet felt rooted to the spot for a brief instant, the distant echoing song like a chain on her ankle. But the flutter of motion from the corner of her eye stirred her back to life, following quickly after Henry as he stepped inside.

The hall between the entrance and the curtains was short, but flanked either side by two other rooms with windows they could see into. On their right was some kind of small clinic office, seeming almost out of place this far underground. The room on the other side was clearly an observation room; an older man in thick glasses sat languidly at a computer screen, giving them a smile as they entered before clicking a button on his desk to close the blast door behind them.

"Hey guys," he greeted, dipping a cheezel in a half-full tub of vegemite. "You enjoyin' her concert?"

"...Concert?" Lynne asked, eyes darting to Henry briefly.

"Yeah," the man replied, licking the vegemite off the vibrant orange cheese ring. "She's Theophania today. Been singin' that song for hours. Guess she likes it." He leaned his head back, letting the cheezel slip off his finger and into his mouth. "Shoulda come in sooner, honestly," he continued while chewing. "She did Song of Roland earlier. You really missed out."

 

[obscured_light]

"TRIIIIICERA-TORPEDO!" Sakinder's belt shouted as he shifted forms again upon the bike, using his shield to block the volleys of salt as he circled around Akiko, drifting across the floor and leaning to the side as he used his machinegun sidearm to fire a volley of shots at her.

The inside of the suit was growing increasingly hot and her heart was beating like crazy. Darkness was creeping into the edges of her vision but she revved her motorcycle and drove it straight at Sakinder. A few of the bullets caught her on her shoulder and arm before flames exploded from her, some of them coalescing into a curved shield in front of her that melted the remaining bullets. The rest of the flames formed walls around them to trap them both inside. Witchfinder Shinigami hit the gas, ready to turn at a moment's notice to make sure she rammed her bike into DinoSoul's. With a scream, a flail appeared in her right hand, ready to follow up once she was within range.

Hen Xin scooped up the orb and both brothers backflipped away from Lin's "children". He shook the orb and frowned. "Didn't catch all of it., thanks to the blue one. Still, Lin's a husk. And we have enough of his soul to act as suitable repayment. Hen Xin turned around as he heard the sound of sirens outside. "Just what we need...."
"And you can be sure, there'll be heroes right behind them..." Chao Nong noted with a sneer. "Best we made our leave..." and with that said, the two brothers rolled backwards, smashing through the restaurant's windows. Both made a point to stomp on the ambulances and police cars that had gathered near the restaurant, nearly crushing the vehicles and their occupants before making a great leap and hopping from building to building, eventually fading from sight, leaving the crowd now gathered on the street to wonder just what sort of battle had occurred inside the restaurant.

Muna fell to the floor besides Lin's husk, his breathing shallow. His eyes stared into nothing and he didn't move as she called his name, shaking him, panic rising in her voice.

"Suna!" she cried out, increasingly getting frantic. "Suna, he's not responding."

Klaus tapped a few commands into his Chrono-Dialer, and the world seemed to spin briefly before their equilibriums evened out.

Bonson's body fell to the ground. His secrets dying with him.

~*~

In one of the top floors with a glass ceiling and greenery flourishing all around, sat a middle-aged woman who was currently blasting alternative music on her headphones. Her desk was set up against a brick wall where four monitors had been mounted. One was currently playing the music videos for the songs she was listening to, another had an mmo on it, with the third and fourth displaying actual work she was currently procrastinating on. There was a video feed on the fourth screen however of when Akiko, Henry, and Lynne had all been escorted in. She was watching it, clipping it, as she talked on the phone.

Her name badge read, "Aase Ward" and she was the head of the security department. She hung up the phone and sighed, "Man, I wanted to level my alt today..."

She didn't know why she kept trying when it seemed like interruptions kept happening. There were automated security measures in place but a lot of time, it needed a human touch. Aase glumly typed away, sending a memo to her subordinates as well as all staff in the building that was currently blaring alarms. It contained the clip along with a message that basically boiled down to "Kill on sight." The message was also set to display on any monitors Alpheum had set up in the building in crisp, 1080p quality.

 

[PiePillager]

"Uh..." Henry breathed heavily, not too fond of the eerie singing behind the door. "How long has she been in there?" he asked, eventually unsure if the man's nonchalant enjoyment of the "opera" was reassuring as to whatever lay behind the blast door. He pulled out his clipboard. "They've got us on double duty with data collection. You know how it is."

***

Dino-Soul grimaced as Akiko's bike rapidly approached his, mace in hand as the wall of flames entrapped them both. He raised up his shield, in order to block Akiko's swing and as he did, he fired the missiles from it at point-blank range, launching them both backward off of their bikes with enough force to part the flames on either side.

***

Ken knelt down to a knee and gave a sigh. Observing Lin's body, he raised a hand. He could hardly sense anything from him. He looked to Lo-Muna, perhaps the closest to Lin out of all of them, as she sobbed. But as they were now, nothing could be done and the sirens were approaching rapidly outside the windows.

"We need to leave..." he said, eying the window still. "Lin's ties run deep, but will Alpeum really feel the need to aid us at this time?" he wondered aloud. "No, there's no doubt in my mind. We need to leave and not just the restaurant either. I'm going to make some arrangements. Be ready to bring Lin with us."

 

[obscured_light]

Shinigami flew to the wall again but flames blossomed from her back, giving her enough of a push to avoid colliding with it again. She staggered forward, mace loosely gripped in hand, breathing hard for a few seconds. The heat was suffocating. Her vision swimming. She screeched in frustration but the moment she took a step forward, her legs buckled. Akiko landed on one knee, hand on the ground for support. The mace fell and then both hands were on the ground before she fell onto her side.

Akiko was knocked out cold.

The belt beeped three times before the Witchfinder lantern was forcefully ejected. It clattered onto the ground a few feet away from her unconscious body. The fires died down and her motorcycle disappeared. Her form broke and it was more evident where the bullets had hit, blood staining the suit she wore, breathing shallow.

 

[PiePillager]

Sakinder sat up, his heavy armor scarred but not too damaged. He was in pain as he stood to his feet., but nowhere near in a bad condition as Akiko. Walking towards Akiko, he returned to his SpinoSAWrus form, saw blade in hand. Looking over her unconscious body he briefly went over his options. The first was to do as Alpheum commanded, and return her to them. They would easily be able to patch her up.

The second was to just kill her. She was a danger to everyone if she easily lost control like that. Might as well do her friends and her foes a favor...but perhaps that wasn't right. There was a third option that came to mind. And with that thought, he scooped her up and lifted her over his shoulders. As he called Machine Mosader back to him, he sat upon the monstrous vehicle and sank beneath the floor, intangibly.

***
Not too long afterward, Sakinder had arrived in what appeared to be a dimly lit lab station. Unceremoniously tossing Akiko's body with a thud on a gurney, he demorphed returning to his human appearance and violently jabbed Akiko in the arm with a syringe. "Necroplasm," he noted to her. "Should heal you up, so stop looking so pathetic. There's something I need you to see."

 

[DarKnight36]

Sasha emerged from the elevator in time to see Sakinder, Akiko over his shoulder, sinking through the floor.

"That's a problem," the Russian super muttered, moving forward to what remained of the board room. He looked around and grimaced. The place was in shambles, and smoke was pouring from several fires that were still raging. With a gesture, Sasha snuffed the flames. No sense in having the place burn down around him. Of course, there was very little in the way of clues either, except for the trace of battle and the glimpse of what he assumed had been Akiko's opponent.

A whisper caught his attention. Pulling aside a piece of collapsed furniture, Sasha found Akiko's lantern. Grimacing, Sasha picked it up and sneered at it. "Shut it," Sasha muttered to the lantern. "I don't want to hear the whining." The lantern's whispers subsided, and Sasha secured it to his side.

There wasn't much in the other rooms either. More meeting rooms, and a large office with a reception desk out front. He checked the computer, and sighed.

On the computer was an alert - Henry, Lynne and Akiko were pictured, with a message: "Alert Security if you see these persons, they have been flagged as corporate saboteurs and are trespassing on Alpheum property. They are considered armed and dangerous, and are confirmed to have powers. Do not engage - Security will neutralize the threat."

"That's also a problem," Sasha grumbled. He might have to... create a distraction.

***

"Calm down Muna," Suna said, crouching down and examining Lin. "He's not dead. There's enough left of him he'll live... at least for now." He looked at Muna, and sighed quietly. He couldn't care less about Lin, but he did care for Muna.

Suna grabbed Lin and hauled him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Come on, let's go. Yamato, grab monkey boy. Ken, lead the way."

 

[druidquest]

"Hyeah," the man replied with a chuckle. He did not believe Henry in the slightest. He pointed at the clipboard. "That's a nice touch. No, there's no data to collect from this one. She's been here for seven years at this point. If they wanted data they'd try to grab one of the success stories, not..."

His voice trailed off as the woman hidden inside finished her song, falling silent briefly before starting over from the beginning. If she really had been doing this for hours, it was remarkable she wasn't at least hoarse yet.

"That."

"Who is she?" Lynne asked, gazing at the plastic curtains.

"One of the subjects from the old Rider project," he answered without hesitation, hand digging into the bag of chezels. "Old? I'm not really sure if they're still considering it active or not. Anyway, she's one of the failures. Didn't die though, so they keep her in here. Hoping she'd improve I think, before they just forgot about her. Now she's just here to get gawked at by noobies trying to sneak in. Almost brings a tear to the eye."

His tone and expression suggested it did not, in fact, almost bring a tear to the eye.

 

[obscured_light]

Akiko gasped as she sat up quickly, nearly laying back down with the wave of nausea that hit her as she did. She let out a few, shaky breaths and blinked at the sight before her as she let herself reorient herself. There was an enemy present after all and this wasn't the first time she woke up on a gurney in an unknown location.

"If it's your smug ass, I'd rather pass," Akiko spat out, exhaling loudly as she fanned herself with her hand. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and the room felt uncomfortably warm. Her own body felt warm too. "Can you at least turn on the AC? I know I lost but torture's kinda taking it far, isn't it?"

~*~

There was a small beep and Aase checked her phone, all distractions put away for now. Her headphones were around her neck now and blasting metal instead loud enough for her to still hear. Multiple feeds filled her screens of different floors of the guest building. Looking up from the text, Aase looked for one floor in particular. She saw an unknown, demonic looking figure standing in the scorched remains of the board room before it walked off, apparently looking for something.

"Man these heroes get weirder every day," she commented as she sent out another bulletin just as Sasha finished viewing one for the others. This time it showed footage of him in that scorched room with another bulletin that basically said, "Capture this one though."

~*~

Muna nodded and got up to leave. Her fists balled up as she thought bitterly how she couldn't intervene in time. Strength and speed had been her abilities but it did little sometimes. Not fast enough to intervene and not strong enough to keep calm.
~*~

From a few rooms away, Sasha could hear a roar and heavy thumping as the Revenext he had met downstairs had finally made it up. It had dropped the human disguise and resumed it's mist like form as it searched for him.

 

[DarKnight36]

"Ah, company," Sasha muttered, noting that now he was included in the alerts. They wanted him alive hmm? They could get in line.

Sasha walked out into the hallway, form shifting back to his natural human form. "So, just as an educated guess, but if the Riders are Akiko's level, you must be a step or two down. What do they call you around here?"

Sasha smiled winningly at the mist woman.

 

[PiePillager]

Henry nodded, almost in relief, as it seemed the lax researcher didn't recognize them as intruders, but rather two new hires for the labs. He smiled beneath his hazmat helmet as his hands stealthily fiddled with the phone hidden within the clipboard, having recorded the researchers' words and quickly uploaded them.

"Well, you caught us," Henry shrugged with a laugh. "But hey, thanks for indulging us!" he laughed again, heading out the door. He whispered to Lynne, "Think I almost have everything I need. Just need one more piece of evidence, but...we still aren't any closer to finding your friend....unless you have some ideas?"

***

"...No," Sakinder noted after a while, turning to face away from the table. "I couldn't even if I tried. We're not supposed to be in here right now, but if you wanna cool off, try touching the glass." He pointed at stacks of glass tubes that lined the walls as he walked forward. Lights automatically turned on above him with each step, shining light upon the contents of the tubes. Each contained fluid with the same sickly green color as necroplasm and at the center of each was a child.

"Most of the adult prospects were failures. Most of the kids are too, to be honest, but their two biggest successes," he pointed at himself and then Akiko. "You were a young adult when they started their little science project. And I was 18 so that spurned them to push their experiments to skew towards younger and younger subjects. I imagine my brother and sister are packed into tubes like this somewhere...probably not here, but in one of their other facilities."

He turned back to face Akiko. "I have no illusions of Alpheum keeping their promise, so I'm just biding my time...but trust me when I say, they're not something to be trifled with. It's not so simple as smashing in here, believe me. Others have tried and failed. Miserably. And for those who didn't lack in morals, it wasn't just because of Alpheum's considerable firepower..." he pointed to his chest, at his heart. "Their strongest attack was hitting them here. Stupid, all of 'em..." he hooked his head.

"This is what I want you to do...." Sakinder turned back around to face Akiko. "Get your friends, turn around, and leave. You're just gonna get in my way."

***
Ken nodded at Suna and stated, "One moment." He reached towards Lin's pocket and drew out a key. He rushed over to a door in the back of the kitchen, where a safe was present, from which he extracted a series of documents. One of which appeared significantly older than another. A scroll of a stained brown color. Ken unfurled it for a second, reading its contents. Giving a heavy sigh. He exited the kitchen and drew out his phone.

"Hello?" he asked after dialing a number quickly. "This is Ken. You know, one of Lin's. ...There's been an emergency. We need a flight out of here..." he continued to talk as he met back up with his siblings and waived an arm forward to follow him. "Tonight. As soon as possible. No, no, a hospital won't suffice. Prepare as fast as you can, we're headed overseas. Mongolia."

 

[druidquest]

Lynne tore her eyes away from the plastic curtains to meet Henry's. "Ideas?" she asked, lowering her gaze in thought. It kept threatening to pull back to the woman imprisoned further inside the ward.

"Sorry to impose on you," she began, face snapping up toward the researcher. "We were actually assigned to help with the subject who just came in for the new project, but we missed which ward he was in. I don't suppose you could point us in the right direction?"

The man considered the pair with a level gaze, lips pursing slightly. "New subject?" he asked, an edge to his voice.

"Yeah. Something Dandy." Lynne twirled her hand to emphasize it was something she didn't really recall. "They said he was over here, but i forgot the ID number."

The researcher scoffed before turning to type something into his computer. He was silent for a moment, staring at his screen intently, then leaned back in his chair and turned back toward them.

"SLM-22345-D. Just a couple doors down," he answered. You got the right area, wrong door." He leaned over to open the blast door for them, waving his hand to hurry them out.

"Thanks, bud," Lynne said, inching toward the slowly opening slap of metal as she waved him goodbye.

"Better hurry, mate," he called after them, his nose wrinkling. "Looks like the head of research is in charge of that one. You won't want her thinking you're late."

 

[obscured_light]

Akiko collapsed onto the glass before the lights revealed what was inside. She scrambled back, away from the cooling relief, to stare in horror at the children inside the tubes. The nausea from earlier returned and she felt chills running down her spine. There was the urge to throw up but another feeling superseded it.

Tears ran down her cheeks. The sound of Akiko's sobbing filled the room once Sakinder had stopped talking.

The day Alpheum had turned her into a rider hadn't been immediately after her capture. No, it had taken days and weeks of prodding and painful experimentation. Her throat had gone hoarse from screaming and every nerve had felt fried. Promise, she had shown such promise though, that they kept going on and on. Finally, they said one day, finally they had made a breakthrough.

Fatigued and aching, Akiko had been led to a large spacious room that was bare except for two large, covered cages. She had been given the same belt she wore to this very day. Akiko remembered how it had weighed around her waist and the hardness of the gold lantern in her hand as she gripped it tightly. Her gaze was firmly on the glass cages as they lifted the covers.

Inside one was a writhing mass of black and in the other, a translucent mass of white jelly. Distorted faces turned towards her as the cages were opened. Multiple limbs reached out for her and Akiko had no choice but to defend herself or be consumed.

So she consumed them. She didn't know the truth until the researchers walked in, clapping with such joy and elation. She didn't know until one remarked how effortless it had been for her to destroy her own family. The sickening guilt swallowed her whole. Those limbs had once been her mother's warm embrace when she had come home, crying after being bullied for not having powers. Those limbs had once been her father's hands carrying her into the air so she could feel what it was like to fly up high.

The lab had been destroyed. Alpheum had been repeatedly attacked since that day. Hero after hero knew the truth about them but so few had made headway as Sakinder had said. They knew where to strike. They knew how to operate openly in the public view because they knew how devastating loss was. Alpheum could just cover up the truth because it took so little effort to do so.

And now they were taking children. It had been her parent's worst fear.

"What have I been doing all this time?" Akiko whispered as she slammed her fist against the floor. The pain reverbrated up her arm and she hissed but did it again. Sakinder had suffered too. And if Alpheum had created him, how many more Riders had they created? How many more hadn't been successful? How many more had been turned into monsters because they had seen success with her?

"What have I even done to stop this?" she whimpered as more tears came. Sakinder's words were lost to her now. "I can't just leave. I can't. I have to fix this. I was supposed to be a distraction but... but I can't just.. "

~*~

"None of your business ," the woman said as she reverted back to her human form. "Just call me Mist though you won't be using it long."

She clapped her hands together and while she had become more mist like again, it didn't seem like she had moved. However, behind Sasha came Mist, hands reached out to grab him.

 

[DarKnight36]

"Do you really want to fight me, Mist?" Sasha asked, folding his arms. "Such a pity. I was hoping we could be more civil. Especially after the place has already been extensively damaged. Infrastructure isn't cheap after all."

 

[PiePillager]

"Okay, don't wanna waste any time, then..." Henry nodded. "Alright, ball's in your court now," he nodded at Lynne as soon as they left the room and the door slid shut. "How do you want to play this?"

***
"No, what you can do..." Sakinder grabbed Akiko's shoulder and shook her. "Is leave. You're making this worse, trust me! Whatever you do, whatever you think you're gonna do, it's not good enough! This isn't even their main facility, so if you did manage to take it down, do you really think it would slow down Alpheum overall?!"

"Don't waste your energy on pointless endeavors," Sakinder started walking away. "Working for them, I'll come closer than you ever will. to taking them down, and I'm not gonna have you ruin it just 'cause you're just now starting to realize what's actually been going down. So don't be stupid and think..." he tapped his forehead as he crouched down to face her. "Could you actually stop Alpheum better in here, no plan, guns blazing, sobbing to yourself? Or would you rather gather information, and plan your approach, so your little revenge quest won't end in catastrophic failure?"

***
"I hope you aren't too concerned with your cars," Ken noted. "I don't think you'll be seeing them for quite some time. Truth of the matter is...Alpheum won't assist in any attempt to aid Lin. What's far more likely, is they'll be interested in studying his current condition and in doing so strike a deal with the Zhao Brothers' benefactors. Neither outcome has particularly positive results for us, I believe."

Along the highway, he sped, driving them all towards Lilydale Airport. There were many forces in Alpheum's pocket and he did not want to impede them, as they made their way. Lin's presence once protected them, he kept a lid on many things in the city by having hands in many pockets. With him out of commission without a cure in sight, his empire would come crumbling down...but it also led to something new. Suna felt a certain way about their current predicament and Ken could not fault him. Lin offered them much, but his vision of their future left little say for them.

There was much they still didn't know. Especially why Lin had taken them all in in the first place. Why he had helped cultivate their talents for mastering chi and not others. Lin wouldn't give them answers and perhaps he did not have them, but Ken had an inkling as to where they could find them. "Once, a couple of years ago, I spied a phone call Lin had. Talking about his prospects. I assume he meant us. He said our talents had other uses than what the temple would teach us."

"Ever since that day, I've been wondering about this temple. What about it had related to us, what could it have taught us...and most importantly just where it was," Ken noted. "I saw Lin store something in his safe, and got the idea in my head that the answer lay in there. And perhaps it did....everything in these documents includes decades worth of study....all pointing to something lying in the Gobi Desert."

 

[druidquest]

Lynne frowned as they stepped out into the hall, the blast door sliding shut behind them. She doubted they would go unnoticed if they simply slipped inside with stolen IDs, but she also didn't know what other options they had beyond simply hoping for the best.

She knew where Dandy was now. That wasn't nothing. And while she couldn't speak to what state they would find him in, she knew that waiting would only make his situation worse and limit her chances of helping him out of this place - or finding the manuscript she'd been hired to procure in the first place.

"The manuscript, huh," she muttered to herself, almost laughing at how irrelevant it seemed right now.

Was it irrelevant, though? Dandy certainly seemed to believe it was important, and if Alpheum cared about it enough to punish him like this - whatever "this" turned out to be - then wasn't there some value to his belief? Value enough to Alpheum, at least.

Lynne sighed, looking down the hall toward the elevator and the blast door sitting beside it. Whoever the chief of research was, it didn't look like she was here yet - assuming she wasn't already inside, of course. But if this was the only chance they'd get right now, they would have to take the risk.

"Alright," she said, turning to Henry before heading down the hall. "Let's see what we're dealing with."

She wasn't sure if she should be surprised or not that the ID card worked to open the door. This whole infiltration mission of theirs had gone remarkably smoothly, so while the other shoe had doubtless begun its descent by now, she doubted it would hit the floor so anticlimactically.

Lynne clapped a hand over her nose as the door slid open, releasing a sharp, acrid stench into the hall. Like rotting eggs, or...

"Sulfur?" she asked quietly, reflexively taking a step back.

 

[obscured_light]

Akiko thought his words over as her sobs quieted. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes and nose with her sleeve, looking up at Sakinder.

"We... we were supposed to be gathering information," she offered meekly even though she felt a rush of words threatening to come out. She wanted to explain herself, to explain what the plan had been. To detail her thoughts but as they bombarded her tongue, weighing it down, one clear thought sat at the back. It sat with such assuredness she couldn't help but focus on it.

She hadn't thought it through at all.

She swallowed loudly and with one last sniffle, she shakily struggled to get to her feet. The necroplasm had helped but she was still exhausted and feverish. Her hand hurt but then again, her whole body did too. Akiko couldn't remember the fight well but she did know Sakinder had kicked her ass and he probably wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Oh, and she had been shot of course.

"I need to get my friends out of here," she said hoarsely, clearing her voice before adding, "And a way out."

 

[PiePillager]

"Good thing we brought these hazmat suits...." Henry said, cautiously looking through the stench-ridden blast door. "But I'm gonna be honest....I don't much like the looks of this. So be prepared for anything..." he advised before maneuvering around in his hazmat suit's sleeve to draw his blaster from its hiding place. Holding it at the ready, he nodded at Lynne and asked, "Want me to take point?"

***
"Well...it's a good thing one of us came prepared, isn't it?" Sakinder asked, drawing out a small tablet. "I'm technically security so part of the job is monitoring cameras. Only issue is there are a ton of 'em. But if your friends are as loud as you, then they've probably already put the security system on high alert. Cameras monitoring emergencies have top priority."

"We have to move out now. And fast," he stated, already beginning to move past all the tubes and through the automatic doors on the other side which led into a pearly white hallway. Just don't screw this up. Any member of the board or security shows up and you say you've decided to join up with us. It's shaky but it's all I've got right now. If they don't believe me and ask me to turn you in, well...that'll be that. I'll do it," he informed Akiko. "So let's try and avoid as many people as possible. If there's enough chaos upstairs, we might get lucky. Understand that much?"

 

[druidquest]

Lynne's eyes searched the face of Henry's hazmat suit, considering his offer. He was armed and likely experienced, but... no. Arthur Dandy was her responsibility, after all. She should be the one to take point. She placed her arm on his shoulder as she moved past him, wrinkling her nose at the stench when she stepped over the threshold.

It was dark. Much, much darker than the other one had been, to the point Lynne wondered if this ward had any lighting installed at all, but when she cast her gaze upward to check the light fixtures the shadows hanging over their heads were so thick she couldn't even tell. And yet regardless of the darkness around them Lynne realized she could see down the hall just fine. Looking left she saw the observation room was empty; she had expected there to be someone to let them in, but maybe this door was automatic? No, that was stupid. This was obviously a trap, just like Henry had thought - she confirmed it for herself when she turned to see the door sliding shut behind them with no keypad on this side to let them back out.

Well then. No other way but forward, right?

She turned her eyes back down the hall, her feet following suit. Instead of the plastic curtains of the other sealed ward, this one had some sort of thick, dark velvet which oozed some dark sticky substance when Lynne grabbed it to pull it aside. The fabric ran down the walls on all sides and across the floor of the chamber, then up onto the operating table in the center where it wrapped in several thick layers around some long oblong shape. No, no, it was-

Lynne rushed across the operating room. "Mr Dandy?" she called out, hands flying to grab at the cloth and pull it away. "Mr. Dandy, are you-" Her words cut short as the fabric deflated in on itself, becoming a limp, flat pile on the table's smooth surface. She stepped back, eyes skittering across the velvet pile in confusion. "Wh-?"

"Beginning first test for Project Solomon, Doctor Zaheer observing." A bored, drawling voice of a woman came through in distorted crackles across the sealed ward. "Primary subject is Alpheum employee formerly known as Arthur Dandy, new designation.... let's go with Polterguard One. That's a cool name. Secondary subjects Lynne Aster and..." she fell silent for several long seconds. "What's your name, bud?"

 

[PiePillager]

Henry was able to pinpoint where the sounds of the speaker were coming from and fired a heat ray from his blaster in that direction. He couldn't find a visible camera but even if it wasn't a direct hit, he figured he got his point across. That this lady wouldn't be taking any additional subjects today.

"Hope that isn't actually your friend..." Henry, added, setting his blaster back to stun and keeping it at the ready. "And if it is, let's hope he's retained any semblance of consciousness. "She gave him a designation...that means whatever he is now, he's not dead....so let's back up and hope he isn't hostile..."

 

[obscured_light]

Aase looked down at the bottom left of her screen where a little notification had popped up.

SACK has logged in.

"Huh," she said as she grabbed another chip and looked to the multitude of feeds she still had to check. She then looked back at the fading notification and decided to peek in on Sakinder's activity.

Hall G Building 37. Board Room M U Building 3. E&T Lab G/E Building 9. Main Lobby G Building 62.

"Oh, so she also called you," Aase muttered to herself as she noticed he was looking at the same cameras that had warning symbols on her screen. She had to scroll through the notifications to see all of them as the system had been set up to capture any activity due to Director Leicht's insistence that no small detail be left unrecorded. Aase sighed loudly at the thought, eyes already glazing over as she kept scrolling back and forth. She looked back at Sakinder's activity, thought it over, and then exited out of the window.

Sakinder could handle himself.

~*~

"Yeah, I gotcha," Akiko said as she hobbled after Sakinder.

She was tempted to ask for more of the necroplasm but the thought of the tubes put her well off the idea. The bleeding had stopped, her body could move, but Akiko was unsure if she could move at the pace he seemed to want to move at. There was her belt as well but in her state, Shinigami Gray's form likely wouldn't hold long enough to find Henry, Lynne, and Sasha. If it had been her own escape, she would have risked it... Or so, Akiko had liked to believe but the memories of Alpheum still lingered. She didn't even want to look down at the belt for the shame and guilt would only slow her down even more.

~*~

"This wouldn't be Alpheum's first time fixing up the property. Why do you think every building is so separated?" Mist asked as she stalked towards Sasha. An orb of crackling energy appeared in her hand and she sent it flying towards him, followed by a volley of them that exploded on contact. "They built it once, they can do it again!"

~*~

The sound of an explosion nearby had Akiko calling towards Sakinder, "Hey you think that's them?"