Epic M&M: Issue 5 (IC)

[Calinon]

Lancheng, China
Raisa
Michael gives another gurgling groan. "Girl with frying pan dangerous," he groans.

X12
Master Wen pauses the movie. "The decision is done. Xi leaving in morning," he says without concern or blame, restarting the movie nearly immediately.

Li, on the other hand, does not leave it there. "You are very good at, how do you say" she says, pausing. "Pushing people's buttons the term is, yes? Have you treated the others to this practiced skill?" she says with a glare. Master Wen just watches his movie.

We'll advance this sometime tomorrow.

Brazilia, SAA
SAP Research Facility
Loki manages to duplicate the containers quite well. The manifests are difficult, and will require some concentration if they are manipulated, as well as line of sight, but all are really well done.

Pavo translates for the Doctor, and discusses it with him. "Actually, we can easily destroy it, just not here. The Anaconda Virus is slated for destruction, but safe transportation won't be available until the middle of next month. The disintegration machien we use is, from what I've heard, really an amazing work of engineering."

He listens to Sanjay, and says, "You are undoubtedly correct, Neutron. But Anaconda isn't the only item stored here," he says, gesturing to the other containment units. Doctor Milan says someting to Pavo. "Doctor Milan says that there is vaccine available for Anaconda on site. Not enough for a widespread outbreak, but enough that if you are exposed and quickly injected with the antivirus, you should recover in time. His staff is preparing auto-injectors for each of you as we speak."

He seems a bit unsure of relating Sanjay's words to Ms. Vaile. "There are several corporate mandates that would inhibit Ms. Vaile's ability to travel to this facility while under direct terrorist threat." Even though he's being slightly subtle, you get that he means there is a snowballs chance in hell that SAP will permit Ms. Vaile on site while the facility is under genuine threat of attack. "Perhaps you would like to speak to her yourself?" he says, not wanting to make any obvious demands of his boss.

"Um, before we all freak out completely," Tara says, "don't forget that these mercs aren't violent guys. I mean, generally speaking. I doubt they'll do anything to really endanger a ton of people.

"Oh come on!" Cosmo says. "You're talking about guys out to steal a deadly freakin' virus! Screw calling Vaile. Loverboy is right; we need to crack that can open and toast that garbage. I know I can get into that thing."

"Uh... UH! That's a billion dollar containment unit!" Pavo exclaims interceding himself between Cosmo and the container. "Unless that's the last resort, only Ms. Vaile or the SAP board of directors could authorize that!"

"Yeah, yeah, screw off," Cosmo says, casually lifting Pavo by the shirt and shoving him behind him. "Just give me the go SJ, sport can do his thing and we can all get on with visiting Brazilia's night clubs for a few days."

In the Van
You can't get a location of the blip since it isn't blipping any more. But you do get a general location and direction from the van. Vida nods cheerfully enough, still not quite understanding what is going on, and soon you are zooming down the treacherous mountain roads at breakneck speed.

 

[Agamon]

"Give your head a shake, loser, that pea in there's come dislodged again," Sanjay says to Cosmo. "We're not destroying company property if it can be helped, especially something with that many zeroes in the price tag." He turns to Jacket. "Since he's so willing to take orders, tell him to go find a clue. That should keep him busy long enough for us to deal with this."

"I don't think we should take that chance, Tara. We have no idea how they're going to approach this. And the last thing we want to do is talk with Anithos. He'll have everyone convinced that taking the virus is not really such a bad thing."

He turns to Pavo. "Yeah, I guess I'll talk to her," he says, shrugging, not sure how he'll convinve her to do something she's not supposed to.

 

[buzzard]

"While I certainly sympathize with your views here Cosmo, we can't just run around destroying property. You ought to know better than that. We're guests here, keep that in mind. " turning to Sanjay "Nuetron, how long does it take you to make the stuff go bye bye? I mean will we have time for you to do it if the bad guys crack the cooler? We can try to delay them as long as possible, but we didn't fare all to well against them last time. Though this time we've got more force with the security folks."

buzzard

 

[Mordane76]

"This isn't about pushing Xi's buttons -- Xi is a Directive, and a very dangerous one with his power," X12 responds. "Prophet can command our bodies to do his bidding, Li - he could order Xi to strangle you to death in your sleep. He might not want to accept it, but something bad is going to happen, and the Directives will be involved, most likely against our will. I'm not going to stand here and let him use me to kill those I care about, or other countless innocents.

"Xi wants to hide from Prophet -- fine. But if Father wants him, there is nothing Xi can do to stop him... unless we find a way to break his power over us. Xi can go to the ends of the earth... As long as his heart is beating, Prophet will know where he is, and can collect him at his leisure.

"You want to blame me for Xi leaving, go right ahead, Li... but remember, he was a killer, not by choice, but because he had no choice... and he still doesn't have a choice, Li -- not until either the power over him is broken, or Prophet is dead. Until that day, he... and I... are a danger to the ones we care about."

 

[Calinon]

Lancheng, China
X12
"Oh, I see. Because this man speaks with you, and knows of you, he knows of all of these others like you. You must have some very powerful evidence to support this. I mean, he must have told you of these others and how he is following their movements and manipulating them as he does with you. Or perhaps you told him of the others? Or you must have some other proof other than your assumptions, yes? This is what has happened, yes?" she asks.

"Or is it you have jumped to conclusions. Because this man has interest and knowledge of you, he knows the others that escaped him survived, yes? He couldn't have learned of your existence through any other way than simply innate knowledge," he says, her voice raising in anger. "It is not as if you appeared in widely broadcast news media video, yes!?" By this point she is shouting at you, hands clenched to her side.

"Movie hard to hear," Master Wen says calmly.

 

[Mordane76]

"Call it however you want to, Li," X12 replies. "Both you and Xi want to blind yourselves to the fact that a man as powerful and as evil as Prophet doesn't need news media to find us. He didn't steal us from our mothers... he MADE us from scratch, in test tubes. He controlled every aspect of our development -- he has power over us with his very words. Xi has a dangerous and powerful ability, one that Prophet gave him - Father sees us as nothing more than tools, and a tool that powerful you don't just let out of your sight.

"You want to be angry with me, fine. I don't have time for that. I need to find a way to stop Prophet from controlling me again, so when the time comes to confront him and his plans, I will not be a liability to my friends. If Xi wants to go and hide, that's his business -- I refuse to hide from a man who made me into a weapon to harm innocent people. But when the time comes, and Prophet tries to control the scattered Directives... Xi had better have chained himself to the bottom of some deep, dark hole, or else there will be nothing he can do to stop our Father."

 

[Agamon]

"While I certainly sympathize with your views here Cosmo, we can't just run around destroying property. You ought to know better than that. We're guests here, keep that in mind. " turning to Sanjay "Nuetron, how long does it take you to make the stuff go bye bye? I mean will we have time for you to do it if the bad guys crack the cooler? We can try to delay them as long as possible, but we didn't fare all to well against them last time. Though this time we've got more force with the security folks."

"As long as it takes. There are three cannisters, and I can only dissipate one at a time, and it's not a quick and easy process."

 

[Elementor]

Watching everyone bicker back and forth Vince decides to pipe up. "So Chief, what is it you want me to do? Normally I would go take a jog around the perimiter at superspeed with one of those hand held dealys but I am not allowed to leave the group....."

 

[Calinon]

Lancheng, China
October 25, 2120

It's been two weeks since your encounter with Prophet and the Red Rose Syndicate. The town has returned to normal with all repairs being completed. Xi left the morning after your strange encounter and his argument with X12, leaving you to be trained by Master Wen alone. But life for you has returned to a semblance of normality.

You have been going through your daily routine. Up at dawn, combat training until noon, school work until your evening meal, leaving you with little free time, though you are free to do what you want in the evenings.

Carl returned three days after the incident, bearing heavy scarring on his hands as well as a line of scar tissue down the right side of his face. His wounds are actually healed, though it is obvious that the scarring will likely be carried for a long time, if not forever. He has been extremely focussed since returning, speaking far less than normal and avoiding most interaction outside of lessons and training.

Nova has not returned, and other than to say she is recovering, Master Wen has not been overly forthcoming with details. Carl has adamantly refused to speak of it with anyone.

As for training, with the exception of Kevin's combat training, most of the training is to do with teamwork and tactics. Much of it isn't physical training, but more reading and study. Master Wen has drilled the benefits of teamwork and obeying orders and sticking to a game plan into you repeatedly, including using a technique you didn't expect.

Virtual Reality.

He's been using suits and visors to put you through simulated combats, allowing you to handle them as you saw fit, then stressing his lessons and having you do the missions again and again until you got it right. It's been gruelling.

Raisa
You're past two weeks have been rather interesting. The schoolwork has been very hard for you, and you are struggling to keep passing grades under the intense workload. Physical training has been far less troublesome for you, though some memory work with tactics has been hard.

Dara is back in your head on a fairly constant basis, though she's learned to turn it off and not transmit every one of her thoughts into your head. It's only like it first was when she's engrossed in something, normally when she's sewing and designing clothes. Or, when she sleeps. You get her dreams as often as your own. You have a growing suspicion that the brief respites you got from Dara when she hung out with Monica at the institute were a result of some activities that you probably would rather not have an inkling about.

But most interesting is the fact that you continually wake up to find Michael in your room or in the hall right outside, sleeping in the same position he was chained up in when the Jackal was inside him. Nothing you do seems to be able to keep him out, or convince him to stay away at nights, though honestly, it has been completely harmless. When outside, he is always facing the door, his forehead on the door jam. When inside, at least when he realized how mad you would get if you woke up to find him staring at you, he is usually facing the door as well, in a similar position. He claims he doesn't remember how he gets to your room. You don't exactly buy that.

It's morning now, and as you wake up, he's kneeling in his shorts, facing the door, supported by his hands on the floor and head against the doorjam, snoring. A familiar large cannister is sitting behind him.

"Hey, dog boy!" comes an angry shout from nearby in the bunkhouse, breaking the morning silence. "Where's my jerky!? Raisa!? Is he with you again?!" she calls out. You hear her stomping down the hall.

Kevin
Your last few weeks have been rather uncomfortable. Since Carl returned, you constantly feel like he wants to hurt you, though the few times you confronted him about it, he denied it. Other than that, he's said barely two words to you since his return. Li is equally cold towards you, though she remains civil. Master Wen treats you the same as everyone, however, and though you did suffer a few individual lectures about listening to others and following rules laid out for you, especially about mimicing others powers, nothing he has done has made you feel unwelcome in his academy.

The schoolwork has been tough, but manageable, but for you, the combat training has been extremely hard. In addition to the teamwork and tactics lessons, you undergo heavy combat training. It leaves you exhausted day in and day out, at least for the first week. You are getting used to it though.

You also train with the others to mimic their powers, and just yesterday, in one of your first full contact training sessions, you faced off with Michael and discovered something that shook you to the core. You had mimiced Jackal so that you could regenerate any wounds you might suffer, and so you could face him on equal strength and weapon footing. His skill at combat, however, proved far superior, and though he didn't mean to, he managed to catch you on your jaw, knocking you unconscious. When you came to, the powers you had mimiced were gone.

The experience left you far more shaken than Michael's blow to your head. The feeling you had when Prophet took something from you returned, leaving you queesy for some time.

The sun is just shining its way into your room, and it alone might have woken you eventually, but Dara does it's work for it.

"Hey, dog boy!" comes an angry shout from nearby in the bunkhouse, breaking the morning silence. "Where's my jerky!? Raisa!? Is he with you again?!" she calls out. You hear her stomping down the hall away from your room and towards Raisa's. You also hear the door across from yours slide open and see Carl's hulking form backlit by sunlight. He's looking down the hall where Dara stomped off.

X12
You manged to get two hours of sleep before the recurring nightmares you've been suffering came back again. You've been seeing images of your "training" by Prophet, the same one's you've experienced before with few new ones, along with images of your escape from his laboratory. The recent memories of your battles haunt you, as do your arguments with Xi and Li.

Most troubling, Prophet has been visiting your dreams. He always appears and points out important moments, typically when he punished you for disobeying, or when you failed to perform a task. When you argue with Xi, you see it from his eyes, looking at yourself, and you haven't liked what you've seen. Cold eyes, emotionless face, and cruel words; but you can't hear anything. When you argue with Li, you are yourself, but can't hear your words. You see their results though, in her anger, and later in her tearful leaving.

Prophet finds the last two memories most interesting. He has been forcing you to relive them nightly, and one thing strikes you as odd and makes you remember Li's words to you as soon as you wake up. Each time you argue with Xi, and watch yourself, he watches with great interest, not saying anything. You always wake up and it's pitch black in your room. The darkness is so deep, it always seems supernatural and you sit alone until the sun rises.

Tonight though, it was far worse. He forced you into a loop, seeing the arguments over and over. And as the night wore on, you didn't wake up, and you started to hear muffled voices. Again and again, he spoke, and he asked the same questions of you.

"Who is this person you are arguing with? Tell me. Tell me who it is, Directive 12. Tell me and I'll stop this nightmare. Who is it that has so earned your spite. Is he someone important to this woman you argue with? What is the connection? Tell me. Tell me!"

You wake up with a start finally, your room seeing dark and forboding, with an empty pit in your stomach as you realize Li and Xi were both right. Prophet doesn't know of the others, or at least not Xi. But he will. Eventually he will learn it from you. You sit there for hours until the sun rises and the others start to rise. The silence is broken by Dara stomping out of her room across from yours and down the hall.

"Hey, dog boy!" comes an angry shout from nearby in the bunkhouse, breaking the morning silence. "Where's my jerky!? Raisa!? Is he with you again?!" she calls out. You hear her stomping down the hall away from your room and towards Raisa's.

Brazilia, SAA
SAP Research Facility
Pavo seems relieved that Straightjacket doesn't let Cosmo wreck anything. Cosmo seems really frustrated, but listens.

"I'll take Sanjay up to our communications center and contact Ms. Vaile," he says, leading Sanjay back up into the facility and leaving the rest of you to plan out a defense strategy. None of your scanners are beeping, and you are certain the half kilometer range will give you enough warning so you shouldn't be caught with your pants down.

Anna sighs at Vince's comment. "Maybe if you didn't run off alone, away from everyone else, you wouldn't end up flat on your back with robots trying to kill you while you can't get away. You're reckless, and someone will get hurt because of it someday. First you ignore everyone on the train to run off alone after those mercenaries," she starts.

"Anna! Jeeze," Tara interupts. "Cool it, already." You can't help but smirk when she stops Anna's little rant, though your smirk vanishes moments later. "But don't be a dick, Vince. You know very well what Straightjacket meant. Leave being a dick to Cosmo. He's way better at it."

"HEY!" Cosmo protests.

I've already long since planned the exact strategy of the bad guys, so you can plan away!

Sanjay
You are lead to a state of the art communciations room. Everyone in the facility is very professional, many taking keen interest in your passing. The room is quite large, with several monitor screens for people to contact others outside the facility, though the room is monitored. Pavo leads you through that room and into a private area for upper management conversations, where he contacts Ms. Vaile.

After speaking with her secretary, she appears on screen about five minutes later. "Mr. Santala, is there a problem? Oh, hello Sanjay," she adds with that perfect smile.

"Not a problem so much as a plan of action," Pavo starts. "But I think it would be better for Neutron to explain," Pavo adds, allowing Sanjay to sit infront of the screen.

 

[Elementor]

Anna sighs at Vince's comment. "Maybe if you didn't run off alone, away from everyone else, you wouldn't end up flat on your back with robots trying to kill you while you can't get away. You're reckless, and someone will get hurt because of it someday. First you ignore everyone on the train to run off alone after those mercenaries," she starts.

"Anna! Jeeze," Tara interupts. "Cool it, already." You can't help but smirk when she stops Anna's little rant, though your smirk vanishes moments later. "But don't be a dick, Vince. You know very well what Straightjacket meant. Leave being a dick to Cosmo. He's way better at it."

"Anna dont make me get into this with you here in public. This is neither the time or the place but I will be more than happy to confront your stupidity later."