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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vigilance" data-source="post: 578854" data-attributes="member: 4275">Episode 3: Muscle and BoneMarcus wrinkled his nose.  “Firepower?  Looks more like madness to me.”His leg brushed against something as he moved through the cramped “lab”, if one could call it that.  “Dump” would be more appropriate.  A Dump for very hazardous materials.  Marcus’ leg caught on something again.  Looking down to remove whatever it was, he was that it was a hand and arm.  Holding onto his leg.“What the hell?!?”Marcus kicked his leg, and the arm flew across the tiny lab and landed with a fleshy thud.  When it hit the ground, it scampered off like a kicked puppy.  Marcus couldn’t believe his eyes.  Madness.  They were going to find the firepower to take out the Countdown Killer here?Marcus moved around the cramped work table, with vials and test tubes of seemingly infinite variety.  He noted with alarm the percentage of them that were labeled “poisonous”,  “hazardous”, or “radioactive”.  Many had all three labels.  Seeing Cassandra, Marcus moved to where she was talking with the keeper of this circus, a tiny man with glasses so thick they could have been used as the refracting mirrors for the Hubble.  He was manic, gesturing so wildly when he talked that Cassandra frequently had to duck while he talked to avoid being pummeled.  He looked like he hadn’t eaten, slept, or bathed in days, and his wheezing breath whistled through a gap in his front teeth as he gesticulated, talking himself into such a frenzy that when he would pause to listen to Cassandra, which wasn’t often, he would have to pant to catch his breath.Cassandra seemed extremely annoyed.  “… but do you have it.  You promised the Senator you could deliver the items, which is why he approved your resignation from U.S.H.E.R. in the first place Dr. Santini, and need I remind you that resignations from such secret organizations are rarely granted for people with you… condition?”This seemed to send the little man’s frenzy to greater heights.  “I’m cured! I’m fine now!  I was the chief designer on Project: Blue Knight and the only American the Soviets would consult with when they had their “issues” with the new Shturmovik line.  Do I need to establish my credentials again every time I speak to you because of some little insignificant breakdown? It was just nerves.  Stress! I’m perfectly well now!”“My God”, thought Marcus.Cassandra placed her hand on the little scientist’s shoulder, and Marcus could feel the waves of empathic calm radiating off her.  He wasn’t sure if she was targeting him purposely to allay his growing unease with the direction this little endeavor seemed to be taking, but whether intentional or not, he felt his heartrate slowing along with Santini’s.    “Now, now Doctor. No one is questioning your ability or competence.  The Senator trusted you with this project because of your past history.  He new if anyone could get this project back on track it was you.  That’s why you’re here.  Now, may I see what you do have?”Santini exhaled, nodding, “Yes. Yes of course. This way please”And so they followed him.  The lab was tiny, but so labyrinthine with highly stacked shelves full of electronics and acids that Marcus, an experienced navigator, wasn’t sure he could find his way out unaided.  Finally they came to what looked like a small, makeshift firing range.  The cold night wind rippled a plastic sheet that had been duct taped over a gaping hole in the wall.  Marcus couldn’t believe his eyes.  The bloody bastard had blown a hole in the wall.  And as the little man removed the tarp covering it, Marcus could see the source of the destruction.  A Gray suit of armor.  Battlesuits the techs called them.  Marcus looked it over, noting the large rockets fixed to the wrists.  One had been fired.  Marcus looked at the inventor, then the plastic covering the hole in the wall, “I take it the test firing went well?”Santini seemed to shrink in on himself with embarrasement.  “Just a minor misfire while the suit was being moved into position! Nothing to worry about!”Marcus regarded the little man dryly, glancing again at the hole in the wall, “As long as I’m not standing in front of it next time it misfires I suppose.”Santini looked like he was going to go berserk again, but Cassandra interjected and broke his train of thought, “So, the suit works, you have a pilot selected for the suit? And he’s trained?”Santini nodded vigorously, “Oh yes! He has been training in the suit for…”Marcus’ mind drifted, examining the suit.  Clearly Santini knew his business.  This suit was built for fighting, Marcus had seen the Blue Knight Armor up close once, during a training seminar given by the Yanks.  That armor was built to command respect. To get criminals to surrender and engender awe and compliance among the civilians, with its blue armored sheen and gold badge that was actually part of the suit’s breastplate.  But not this armor.  This armor had a different purpose.  A military purpose.“… and Colonel Brandon has assured me…”Marcus started, mind returning to the conversation, “Colonel David Brandon?”Santini started, totally flummoxed by the interruption of his train of thought, but his head jerked up and down in the affirmative, “Yes, he came quite highly recommended.  Very highly.”Cassandra tilted her head, regarding Marcus intently.  “Is there a problem Mr. Warrick?”Marcus shook his head, turning back to the suit, continuing to appreciate how sturdy it looked, mind going through names like a file cabinet, he knew that name from somewhere… long ago.“… and then there’s the biomimesis unit…”“Oh!”Marcus reached instinctively for the Glock in his shoulder holster, but for the life of him he couldn’t see a reason for Cassandra to look so alarmed.  A young woman, lab assistant of some sort, pretty Marcus noted absently as he returned the gun to its holster, had joined the conversation.  Marcus walked over to join them, taking his eyes at last off the battlesuit and joining the others.  He lightly touched Cassandra on the arm while Santini rambled on about genetic forming or some other technobabble.  “You’re easily startled this evening aren’t you?”Cassandra was just staring at the girl.  Finally she asked, “What is it?” Santini stopped talking, seemingly had no idea what to say to that.  The girl spoke, “I am Heather”.Cassandra took a step back, terrified, bumping right into Marcus.  “She’s not alive.”The pretty girl inclined her head, long braided ponytail slipping off her shoulder, calmly regarding the large Excalibur agent and the terrified woman.  “I am Doctor Santini’s greatest creation, the Human Experiment, Artifically Transformed Hybrid Embryo Recombinant, but you may call me Heather for convenience.”Marcus cleared his suddenly dry throat, regarding the girl he had regarded as pretty just a moment before in a new light.  Looking at Santini, he finally found his voice.  “You… made her? Like a robot?”Santini smiled, obviously proud, like a parent, “I grew her, Mr. Warrick, out of a combination of biomimetic waste products and human embryos.  So in a sense you could say that I put the pieces together.”Marcus slowly wrapped his mind around those words, mind moving slowly, “You’re talking about human body parts.”</blockquote>

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