Metropolis

Artemis said back,in his confident tone of voice, "We'll be fine so long as we follow orders. Apparently,the military,and somehow also Superman,want anyone infected by a recent virus,which is said to manifest unique,otherwise unexplainable symptoms in those it infects. I happen to exhibit some strange...Occurences...Every so often."


Butler simply nodded gravely.
 
Hearing people behind her speak, Gear's eye twitched as she walked a bit faster. Her luck that the place would be empty when she got there, and then get busier as she made the trek to the building. As it loomed in front of her, she realized that it was still rather far off and her annoyance level flared.


As it rose, the ground on which she stepped started getting charred, and leaving small smoking foot prints behind.
 
Butler noticed what appeared to be smouldering footprints on the ground in front of them,and quickly stopped Artemis,and pointed to them. Artemis nodded,and called out to Ryker, "Watch your step. The ground looks like it's about to burst into flames."


After this,Artemis and Butler continued,giving the footprints a wide berth. Butler was looking ahead for the source of the footprints. Anyone that leaves prints like that could be a problem.
 
A few moments later, Gear had a soldier yelling at her while going towards her. Freezing in place, she watched carefully, hands pushing up her glasses just in case. "Sir, Sir!" The soldier yelled before slowing down to a walking pace in and stopping in front of her.


"Sir, I'm going to have to as-"


"Ma'am, if you wouldn't mind." She said sharply.


"Uh...well, then, Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to cool it with your traits, your drawing attention that you don't really want."


"Really? And do you think I know how to cool it? I didn't even know I was doing it." She growled at him, "After all, isn't that why were here..for you to give us some cheap kind of cure that won't work? Or are you just going to kill us instead, call us mutants?" Naturally, she was saying the most vicious things she could towards what could happen here. After all, not having even heard the full report, she really didn't know what was going on in the slightest.


The soldier looked a bit suprised at first, before standing his ground, ordering her to go to the building without another word and left her there. Smoke filing under her feet for a moment before she growled a threat, despite the soldier not being able to hear it.
 
Butler and Artemis noticed a person getting stopped by a soldier. After a quick conversation,the soldier left,looking annoyed,and the other person looking very,very,miffed. "Angry and fire...The only way to make this worse would be if that person were female...Don't tell Holly I said that,Butler." "Of course,sir."
 
Cracking her knuckles on the inside of her jacket, she turned her head to see a kid, a large man, and some odd person just there, Gear bared a vicious grin in warning.


"What? You got a problem to?" Shaking her head, she went back to walking, trying to calm down but failing horribly. She should have shredded that soldiers throat open, but no no no, they'd find her that way. And assaulting an officer? Not something she wanted to add to her record as of yet.
 
Butler noted, "Sounds like a woman,Artemis. And she has a nasty attitude. Avoid?" "If at all possible." Artemis decided against calling out to her. He may risk a scene.
 
Eve looked at the girl that seated herself next to her. Not knowing when it was going to be her turn to go with the 'whitecoats' she decided to chitchat with her.


" Hi, I'm Eve. "


" So I'm guessing you're here for the same reason? Virus-stuff? "


She asked with a smile.
 
Scarlett entered the main building that the guards had pointed out to her. It looked like there were mostly guards in here, but she spotted a few people in casual attire. She figured these were other people who were experiencing strange things and she examined them each quickly to see if they were having the same symptoms as her. None of them were, but she did spot Eve in the crowd.


She wasn't sure if she was more relieved or embarrassed. If she'd known someone she knew would be here she probably would have had to do some more convincing to get herself to come. She froze for a moment and actually considered leaving before she realized that Eve must have been experiencing strange things as well and that there was no need to be ashamed. It wasn't her fault something was trying to grow out of her back... right?


She took a breath and started to make her way over to Eve. The lumps on her back still hurt, even after taking some ibuprofen. There was another girl sitting near Eve and as Scarlett began to pass she heard the girl's seat creak and suddenly break. She didn't look very heavy so Scarlett figured the chair had been faulty and she stopped walking and knelt to help the girl up.


"Are you okay?" she asked, grabbing her by the elbow to help pull her up.


[]
 
Just noticing that a girl was sitting next to her, Talon looked up at her then quickly away, trying to focus on something.


“Hi, I’m Talon” she introduced, finally settling on a wall behind Eve


“Yeah…although it looks like no one has the same virus as me” she noted, shifting her weight uncomfortably.


Her chair creaked dangerously again, and this time fell out from under her, as it collapsed. When the girl walking past noticed she had fell, she crouched next to her and asked about her well-being.


“I’m okay” Talon noted, pulling her elbow from the stranger's grip


The only thing that would help is her own descent to the ground, so Talon pushed herself up, seeing the dent she left in the ground and frowning.


“Sorry” she noted at the both of them
 
Eve nodded at the comment Talon made about nobody having the same virus as her. ' It must be hard, not knowing what illness you have and nobody that can tell you. ' She thought to herself before noticing Scarlett entering.


Before she had a chance to call out to her though, Scarlett was already coming her way. Eve got up just as Talon's seat started creaking and moaning under some invisible pressure because the girl didn't seem heavy at all. Then the chair groaned one last time before giving in and breaking apart, sending Talon on her way to the ground. Luckily she didn't seem to have hurt herself and before Eve had a chance to help her out, Scarlett was already there giving Talon a hand.


Eve smiled, the pressure and atmosphere seemed to have changed from impatient stress to an amical atmosphere between the three girls.


" Oh don't apologize, it's not your faulth. " She said with a friendly face.


" I'm not sure what I have, I just felt so weird and been acting really out of sorts lately. I thought it'd be better to make sure if there's something odd going on with me. " She stated nonchalantly, eventhough nobody asked her about it.


" What about you, Scarlett ? "


" Oh, Talon, Scarlett. " She said smiling as she pointed at the respective owners of those names.
 
Scarlett pulled her arms back when the girl pulled her elbow from her grip. Apparently she didn't want any help and maybe automatically assuming it was okay to grab her was wrong. But Scarlett was just trying to help her out. Still, maybe she should keep her hands to herself from now on. When the girl apologized, Scarlett felt a little more at ease.


"I guess they don't make chairs how they used to." she joked to lighten the mood, then decided on a seat and sat in it. Eve asked about what symptoms of the virus she was experiencing and she immediately tensed. She wasn't really sure what to say about it. There was a minor distraction when Eve introduced her to the other girl, but it only lasted a few seconds and when it was over the attention was back on her to answer the question.


"I'm not really sure..." she answered, hunched over a little in her seat. A sigh escaped her as she decided to show them. She turned to face her back to face them and slid her jacket off. She pulled her hair out of the way and exposed the two whatever-they-weres, her skin stretch over them, red, swollen and sore. She was sure that whatever was in there was about to rip right through her skin. She figured it would hurt, probably like an ingrown toenail when it was finally split out of the skin, it sure throbbed like an ingrown toenail now. If it meant figuring out what it was and the pan gong away though, then she hoped it happened very soon. It seemed like it would but she didn't exactly have any experience with this sort of thing.
 
Stepping into hte building, the ground covered quickly by her irate mood. As she entered though, her mood pulled a Houdini and dissapeared completely, leaving her instead to just feel empty. Rather than talk to someone though, she moved to a wall and leaned agaisnt it, keeping her head down before examining her hands. Both where a solid white now.
 
Talon was only half paying attention to the conversation; the other part of her was looking at the white-coated people collect their patients. Nodding as she was introduced to this Scarlett girl, she realized none of her symptoms matched with Eve’s and shifted her attention to the helpful brunette.


What she had was nothing the red-head was expecting, as her jacket came off and it looked like bones were protruding out of her back in a weird arc. The red skin was stretched to the very tip, where it turned an abnormal white like an infection. Not holding back on her curiosity she asked,


“Do they hurt?” even going as far as to reach out, wanting to touch the sore-looking skin hooks.
 
Artemis and Butler walked ahead of Ryker. As they passed,Artemis said, "We'll be inside. Follow if you want."


Upon entering,they were greeted with a scene straight out of Hollywood; Men and women in white coats,presumably doctors,were leading individuals to the adjoining rooms,and there were a few people in the center of the room,near the wreckage of a chair. Butler noticed in the corner the same woman from before,and decided to keep hit attention on her.


Although it was impossible for them to not be noticed,Artemis and Butler moved with a sense of stealth. They sat near the group of women;close enough to overhear them,but far enough away for the women to pay no mind.
 
Feeling someone staring at her, Gear sighed and pulled off her sunglasses and scarf, before shedding her jacket. Folding them over her arm, and not even caring about the fact her skin was fully covered with that stuff now, she moved towards the one big lug staring at her.


As she moved next to him, she looked him up and down before settling for keeping her head tilted up a bit and looking at his face. "Can I help you?" Her arms folded under her chest as she leaned to one side before adjusting the shoulder strap of her shirt.
 
" Oh Scarlett... " Eve exclaimed all shocked-like.


" I hope it isn't something malicious, but whatever it is, it looks like it hurts. I'm sorry. " She said while looking at the large humps on Scarlett's back.
 
Butler responded to the woman,in a flat,professional tone, "Only that you don't do anything stupid in the presence of Master Fowl,ma'am. If you do,I'll be forced to take action."
 
"I'm sorry, I don't know, or care who that is." Gear responded drying, before looking over her shoulder at a man in white then back at the lug. "And I don't think I'd mind that too much." She added, purposely trying to find something to make him tick.
 
Butler was a rock. "That's a shame,ma'am. I'd hate to ruin a work of modern art,such as yourself. Now,please,return to your own buisness so I may do my job."
 
"Considering you were hawking me like I was going to shoot you in the forehead, I would say you are my business." Gear responded, dropping all manners of playfullness together. Looking around him at the kid, she whistled to get his attention, "I would give big guy here a raise, by the way, pip squeak." Her voice was cold and almost dripping theoretical acid.
 
Artemis chuckled. "He has a better pay than anyone else in Europe. I think he's set for life." Meanwhile,Butler said,this time in a much more menacing tone, "Leave. Now."
 
"No." Gear said, grinning darkly, before she shook her head. "Your not worth the risk getting caught, actually." Putting her sunglasses back on, she tilted her head back a bit watching the people in the white coats again, completely blocking out the two and other than standing next to them, cut off her communication to them the most the man was going to get it.
 
"Like an absolute *****." Scarlett responded when asked if her lumps hurt. Yeah they hurt! And she was sure that rubbing against her jacket hadn't made them look less painful. "They sorta feel like an ingrown toenail, only a lot bigger... and on my back." she explained then glanced over her shoulder to look at the two behind her.


That was when she saw her new acquaintance reaching out to touch her deformities and she quickly jerked away, out of her reach. "I've poked at them enough to know they hurt more when you touch them..." she explained, then carefully slipped her jacket on. She felt a sharp pain at the tip of one of her lumps and it took everything she had not to make any noise. Her back was still turned to them and they couldn't see her face. She waited until she could hold a straight face to turn around again.


The slightest hint of a wince passed over her features again. It hurt a little more every time she moved, but as long as she kept still it felt just as it had before. Maybe her skin had finally split open, but she wasn't ready to look yet. "So... you two haven't had anything like this?" she asked, referring to any physical change (like growing more limbs or whatever). "I just hope the wait isn't much longer." she told them, obviously anxious to figure out what was going on and get some help.
 
Butler was about to move the woman with force when the room began to heat up suddenly,and the lights grew much brighter than they should be. Butler stopped,and checked on Artemis.


Artemis' face was contorted with pain,and he was clutching his head. "Not...Again..."
 
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