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 Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:29 pm
Once all of the Hosts - and Finnegan - had followed them in, the scientists turned. They were all either nervous, distressed, or scared. The room was a large, break room-style place, mixed with conference room elements. There was a long table in the middle, about a dozen and a half or so chairs, and a fridge next to a counter with the standard office supplies: coffee pot, cups, microwave, etc.
The German man started. "You...you are the Hosts," he said in disbelief.
The Persian woman, clearly the leader of the group, said, "You are our greatest success...and our worst endeavor. What we did to you...what we did..." and she began crying. The Hosts were stunned.
A bearded man spoke from the back. "We didn't want to; not all of us. There was a much larger team, but it's just us here. We didn't want to, man. It was just something that we thought of..."
A pretty though aging blond woman said, "They offered us a lot of money to do the project. Many of us were against it; it was unethical. But...but..."
The German: "Zey had our families! Mein Gott, we should have said no! But zey...zey had mein dotter..."
The Hosts were stunned. These scientists...they weren't sadistic maniacs who did this because it was funny to them. They genuinely regretted their participation in the dark act. Everyone there understood: these scientists did not sleep at night, tortured as they were by their nightmares. For them, there could be no personal penance to forgive this crime.
"It wasn't us," the Persian sobbed. "We didn't want to. But the government...the government...those they couldn't buy, they coerced. The forced us into this!"
Elizabeth spoke. "What happened to us? What did you do to our bodies?" The Hosts's rage had mostly cooled - they were too startled.
It was the bearded one that responded. "It was an evil act. The government, the dark, dark government, it was their idea. They - "
He was cut off as they all felt a strange pull from the other side of the room. The air shimmered for a moment, and everything was suddenly in slow motion. The Hosts couldn't see fast enough as...
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:17 am
...the wall ripped open, revealing the Adam-team behind a portal. To a man, their expressions were grim; their eyes showed no sign of care. They moved quickly, too fast for the Hosts to react in time. Four split off; one dragged a crushing weapon of earth, one crackled with energy, one flew on the wind, one dropped through the floor and came from behind, all of them aiming disabling but not destructive attacks at the Hosts. These, they might react to; they were too busy, however, to stop the remaining five Adams from slaughtering the scientists.
Blood spattered against the walls as Lionel drove his blade from the German man's shoulder to his hip; the smell of burnt flesh reeked as Lizzie rammed a glowing arm through the bearded man. The blond woman was decapitated by a blade of ice, and the remains were incinerated by the final Adam. Ashes and bones dropped to the ground where once human beings had been.
That was for another moment, though, because now a stone mace held by the stone man hurled through the air at Lance, while a burst of air came from the flying girl, knocking Clarissa into a wall. Elizabeth saw that the girl coming at him was wreathed in electricity, while Helena found a foot flying from an entirely unexpected direction.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:36 pm
Elizabeth screamed at the sight. More specifically, she screamed (in a mix of hunger and rage at having their answers stolen from their hands) "You stupid homicidal c**t!" as she activated her shield on her right arm and slammed its edge into the electrified girl's jaw. There had been no indication of the viral extensions being more or less conductive, but either way electrogirl was about to have a mouthful of viral bitchslap.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:51 pm
The girl realized what was coming far too late, and Elizabeth moved far too fast. Somehow it seemed very, very improbable, but the blow connected - with consequences. Even before the shield struck, an arc of blue, ionized air leapt from the girl's face into Elizabeth's arm, almost completely numbing it and temporarily driving her entire body into a single seizure. The shield, however, connected all the more strongly, and the girl had made no preparation; there was a satisfying crack of jawbone breaking, and a less satisfying crack of Elizabeth's skull meeting the concrete.
Her arm was out and she was a little sore, but she wasn't out.
---
Sheperd and Navarro considered what had just happened, over the past few hours.
They had been confronted by the Adam with the teleporting ability - Harry, he had said his name was? - had brought them to a nondescript warehouse, where the rest of the Adams had explained the Thief, the Hosts, and exactly what was about to happen.
"The Hosts are going to find things out. We need to... we need to see that not happen. You'll join us momentarily after we hit." That was all the explanation they had been given. Not what they were supposed to do once they were there, not how they were meant to fight. Simply that they needed to. That this was important. That something serious hinged on this.
And now here they were. Ashes and bones lay on the floor - who that was, they didn't know - and the rest of the Adam-team was already attacking. They remembered their final order very clearly. "Kill no one. That's very, very important. Kill no one," Lionel had told them.
Well, now they knew what they needed to do.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:51 pm
((Yeaaah, I'm gonna get Boost.))
Clarissa quickly got up and saw the ashes of the scientists. "No...no no nononono...." All her answers, her hopes, her past...it just disappeared thanks to these maniacs. "Why did you kill them?! They weren't harming anyone!" White hot fury ran through her body. The same power that she'd felt after eating the woman came again - she could feel that burst of energy rise again.
It was driving her crazy. She'd hurt, killed, and eaten people all within the span of two days! It was taking a toll on her sanity, and now it was being released on these homicidal people. "I WILL HAVE REVENGE FOR THEM." With speed that she'd felt during the fight with the Host-Agent, she ran to attack the ice user.
------
It wasn't hard for Adela to find the group. The screams made it easy for her to find. "Oh my God..." Once she got there, she saw Adams fighting against Hosts. On the ground, there were ashes. Please don't tell me that used to be human. "The hell happened here!?"
She saw the Shield girl go after the electric girl, so she decided to help out. "Jeez, what did you people DO here?!" She tried to attack Elizabeth from the side while the Host was still unfocused from the prior attack.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:56 pm
Elizabeth was getting up off the floor when Adela assaulted her, going for a stomp to her prone form. "Oh, ******** you, you goddamn psychos!" she yelled as she blocked with her shield, supported by her other arm, before rising up with her shield still below Adela's foot in an attempt to throw her to the floor. She wasn't thinking, wasn't feeling. It was pure hunger, viral instinct - the virus wanted its Host to remain alive, and it was telling her everything she needed to do to stay so.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:10 pm
"Hey, you wanna tell me what's going on?" She back flipped away from the upset woman. "If this mess isn't your fault, then explain what the hell is going on here!" She kept away from the angry Host, waiting to see how the girl would respond. "I sure as hell don't want to fight."
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:17 pm
"Your allies just massacred civilians whose families were being kept hostage by these assholes, that's what!" Elizabeth snapped as she rose to her feet, her arm absorbing the shield and returning to normal. Tears of frustration, flecked with some unknown dark substance, began to flow from her wide-open eyes as she yelled. "We wanted answers! We almost had them! The scientists who, who did whatever they did, because their families were kidnapped, were going to explain it to us! And these ******** teleported in out of ********' nowhere and ******** killed them all! Don't you dare blame this on us! Don't you dare!"
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:42 pm
Finnegan was outraged at the unnecessary display of violence before him. "What the hell was that!" Finnegan nearly yelled. He had every intent to make his intentions clear, "Those were innocent people! They didn't deserve to die! This is going too far, I'm turning coat."
As he spoke, Finnegan entered a fighting stance, he knew that his betrayal would not be taken lightly, but this was his chance to prove to the Hosts that he was on their side.
He glanced over and noticed Adela. Awkward... he thought, realizing the fact that he had just betrayed good people that had trusted him. But it was for what Finnegan believed was right, it was his decision.
I just hope I don't have to get in a serious fight with any of them...they're mostly good people, they are.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:55 pm
Adela basically froze in place and tilted her head. "Wait, what?" That was the Adams who did that?! The people she was helping? "They...wha...oh s**t." She was now really confused. Her defenses dropped with this information.
It didn't help that Finnegan just betrayed them. "Okay wait. Those people that were murdered were blackmailed? And they," she referred to the Adams, "killed them for no reason?" Maybe Fin had the right idea. "Mmkay. Can we cut a deal here? 'Cause I think we both got off on the wrong foot." She just wanted to get this all over with and make sure Schraeder got help.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:59 pm
"If you'd stop attacking us for no ******** reason, we wouldn't be having these problems," Elizabeth pointed out, putting her hands on her hips. "And hell, if you feel like leaving Team Evil b*****d, and joining Team Quit Attacking Us, I'm sure we have more room." She glanced hungrily at the unconscious electric-girl Adam but suppressed her impulse to feed on it for the sake of public relations.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:20 pm
And then there was a bandaged arm on Elizabeth's shoulder.
"I think you don't understand," Lionel spoke into her ear. "I don't think either of you understand. He was gone before Elizabeth swung her shield at him in retaliation, into a backroll to Finnegan. He turned it into a jump over head, sword pulsing out of Fin's shadow and into Lionel's hand.
"I think you clearly are failing to understand the situation, in fact." Lionel's grimace was tainted by anger, just a smidgen. "You haven't seen... you haven't understood... you don't know, do you? We never told you. We couldn't tell you. We can't tell you." And then Lizzie was behind him.
"Enough of that," she snapped. "We've spoken enough, and we've done what we wanted." Lizzie showed no emotion. "We show them why they should be afraid of us and hope they fade into the limelight. At least He won't care about what we've been up to here. Right now... well, beat the s**t out of her," Lizzie ordered. Lionel nodded quietly, the rage disappearing, his face completely flat.
Lionel looked her in the eyes, spun his sword once to loosen up, and then struck head-on.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:23 pm
Xu was relieved. He had no idea how he was going to talk Adela into continuing on with the mission, especially since he barely wanted to either. It was a good thing that Schraeder did. The faster we finish this, the faster he could get the guy some help.
He followed after Adela, letting her lead the way. Xu took this time to let his mind wander, thinking about the current situation and what he had gotten himself into. Suddenly, the vine underneath him sensed vibrations. However, it was not what Xu had expected. The signals reported that someone was moving away. Opening his eyes, Xu caught sight of Adela as she ran into a room.
"Adela! Wait up!" Xu started off in a sprint, the vine following suit underneath the ground. As he got closer and closer to the doorway, more and more vibrations became clearer. There were a lot of people in that room, Xu thought. Taking a deep breath, Xu stepped into the room, standing at the doorway. The first thing he did was sent his vine in, still underneath the ground, and have it take up position between him and Adela. The second thing, he did was take a quick glance around the room . It seemed the Adams and two new people were on the scene. The Hosts were here too, on the opposite side of the room. Adela was currently engaging one of the Hosts. The smell of burnt flesh was pungent and a couple piles of rags and bones could be seen in one corner of the room. Then, Xu caught sight of a familiar face. Fin.
"Fin," Xu muttered quietly, not wanting to attract attention to himself. At least he seems well. Xu had been worried about Fin ever since they lost sight of him. At least, now they had found him. Now what's left is to clean up this mess and go help Schraeder. Moving his attention to Adela and the Host on the ground, Xu watched as Adela tried to negotiate with the Host. Just then, Lionel and Lizzie came, and in a flash, Lionel struck the Host.
"What's happening here?" He asked, though if anyone heard, he did not know. The Adams seemed...different. Something must've happened, and it was putting Xu on edge.
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