Chapter Three, B :: State of the Inhumane

[Reese]

Indirect kissing?

Reese looked over at Vanesse as if she'd just grown another head.

It didn't sound like she was trying to be cute or witty, but...

She can't be serious...

The silence that followed her statement was enough to tell him she was. He chose not to flatter her phenomenal ignorance with any kind of response, and instead turned and moved into the lab behind Stella, thoughtlessly letting the door swing behind him and therefore disregarding his original intention to hold the door open for the Opps girls as well.

What the fuck was Leonhart thinking...

[Storyteller]

As you walk into the lab you are greeted by the smell of yet more blood. The first room looks as if its a meeting room of some sort. A large table dominates the center with six chair surrounding it. the red emergency lights paint the place in a macabre manor.

Moving nearer to the table you see in front of each seat are short white sticks of some kind pointing towards the center of the table. Upon closer inspection you realize these sticks are actually finger bones. A set of a single finger rests in front of five out of the six chairs. All of them pointing to the exact same place at the center of the table.

[Reese]

Reese's brow creased as he stepped into the eerie space. What the hell is this? He approached the table, and when the realization of what the slender white pieces of bone actual were hit him, he felt an understandable discomfort. The power going out was strange enough. The blood pool at the bottom of the stairs and the mauled human in the corner were obviously a gruesome warning sign of something unpleasant to come. He wasn't sure what he thought of them at the time; perhaps some kind of violent escape of a beastly experiment? There was no telling.

As he stood at the table and looked down upon the pieces of finger bones laid out so carefully, though, he knew had been a bit foolish to assume it would be something that simple. The laboratory unit was arguably DotNA's strongest and most competent division, even a very powerful and angry experiment on the rampage would not be capable of causing this much chaos.

Right?

He sighed through his nose, his mind working carefully through preceding clues. The compound had seemed oddly... deserted. When they first entered, they reached the initial security room with relative ease. A few operatives came at them, but it had been nothing like he imagined. Actually, it hadn't felt like the compound to him at all. The dozen or so that tried to stop them in the Foyer had been a joke. It shouldn't have been that easy. There should have been more.

An evacuation? Could this... something, whatever it was that made the mess and caused the power outage, could it have been so fierce that it also caused an emergency evacuation?

Something is going on.

Without word Reese placed his hand at the hilt of his sheathed gunblade and moved around the table into the room beyond.

[Stella]

"Reese" Stella says her voice cracking a little. She takes a deep breath looking at the bones laid out on the table. Never in her life had she seen anything like this.

"I imagine that this isn't normally like this...." she says glancing over at Van and Jamie. Her eyes are full of worried.

"Any idea what's going on here?" Stella asked.

[Reese]

Reese paused at the sound of his name with his hand on the door and glanced back over his shoulder at Stella.

"No. It's not normally like this."

It was a quiet response, but within the eerie silence of the room his voice almost seemed to resonate. He turned away from the three girls. "I might need some cover in here."

And with that said he pushed the door open and stepped into the first actual lab room of the laboratory wing.

[Storyteller]

The lab room sprawls out in front of you. There are work stations placed all about the room covered with papers and destroyed test tubes. The emergency lights paint the whole place red and the smell of blood still clogs your nose.

The four of you stop suddenly. On a large table in the center of the room are the remains of what once must have been a young red dragon. It's body is torn open, it's limbs spread being held down by large spikes. Blood splatters cover the walls. The sound of dripping fills your ears and you see the blood from the monster is falling into small silver bowls positioned under the tables.

Not far pinned to the wall in the same way is a human corpse. The remains of his clothes tell you he was once a lab tech here at DotNA. From the arch of the blood you can tell both victims were alive when this happened.

In the distance you hear a woman sobbing.

[waterlily43]

Jaime blanched at the sight in front of her. She couldn't even decipher the noise in her ear from the comm device. First there was excessive bloodspill before they went into this room, then what looked like bones pointing a the same direction on a table looking like some cult ritual. Sure she was no stranger to gore but the air was clogging up with the sickly coppery smell of blood and she thought she was going to hurl. She forced back her reflexes to be sick clutching Van's arm tightly without looking at her friend's face. This was worse than the B-grade horror movies they sometimes watched together during slumber parties.

But it was nothing compared to what greeted her next. Why on earth were they collecting red dragon blood? And the man...she shuddered when she looked at the man, quickly turning away. Her pallid face turned a slightest shade of green as she forced the bile down her throat.

Instead she focussed on something else, a faint noise in the background.


"D...do you hear that?" She grabbed Reese's hand, her voice faint and trembling. "Let's check it out okay? Check it out?" She pleaded at him. I'd rather not stay here longer than neccesary.

[Reese]

Reese's body became rigid and tense as the scene before him brought all of his senses alive. His eyes traveled slowly from the small ruby dragon to the bowls, and from there followed the trail of smeared and splattered blood all the way to the grotesque form of the technician slumped against the wall. He stood there for a few long seconds taking everything in, the grip around the hilt of his gunblade tightening all the while. The room was deathly silent save for the dripping of blood, but with every single drip Reese could hear a great pounding drum inside of his head, and one thought kept running circles in his mind...

Who...

He felt slender fingers wrap around his own, but the pleading voice that they belonged to was only falling on deaf ears. He wasn't listening to Jaime because right now he didn't care what she was saying. He pulled his hand out of hers and strode forward suddenly, kicking one of the silver bowls out of his way as he moved around the table, careless of the blood spill and the loud way the bowl clattered and spun across the floor. His anger was building with every step he took; an anger that he didn't totally understand, but he felt it so strongly that he couldn't reign it in or hide it. The fact that all of this could happen and... He took another glance in the direction of the pinned corpse, then looked away quickly. Until now, he'd been able to separate himself from his former comrades. But perhaps it was only easy when he was standing opposite their blades and barrels, because even though he was no longer looking at the corpse against the wall, the sadly disturbing image of it was imprinted against his mind.

And somehow, he felt partially responsible for that sad image.

"Where are you?!" He spoke out fiercely as he came to stand in the center of the lab. He pulled his gunblade clean of the sheath and peered ahead through the poor light. His voice was cold and hard as steel as he held the weapon ready at his side. "If you're still here, show yourself."

The reality of his situation was slipping away from him, burned by his anger. He heard the distant sobbing but ignored it. He didn't care about his mission or any of the girls, and he didn't care what they thought of him or his actions. He only wanted to face who had done this to the lab. His lab. Right now, it was his only care.

[Storyteller]

"Oh I'm still here all right" A thick voice says from the darkness. It echoes in humanly off the wall. A man steps out from the shadow standing in front of Reese.

He is large with rippling muscles showing under his torn bloody clothes. They may once have been the sort of garb a prisoner would have worn. A wicked looking gunblade rests loosely in his hand. Dark eyes watch the four of you as he slowly licks his lips. Everything about his stance is threatening.

"What a little treat, three lovely ladies and one little boy. They must have gotten tired of throwing their best agents at me" he says softly. In the distance you still hear the woman sobbing.

[vanesse]

Vanesse braced herself as soon as the burly man stood in front of them. There was not enough lighting but she could tell this man was a bloody murderer. Her heart raced, but the feeling of Black Wings against her palms was keeping her in check.

She clenched her jaw and put one step back defensively.

Is the big guy holding someone captive? she thought. I can hear someone crying.

"You have hostage with you, don't you?" Vanesse shouted defiantly. "Let her go. You perv!"

[Reese]

Reese's hard stare remained fixed on the man standing before them. He barely heard Vanesse's voice through the voices that were ringing in his own head.

Who are you?

Best agents...

What have you done?!

Why are you here?

Who sent you?

So many questions, and all of them rushing through his mind so quickly that he felt almost too overwhelmed to choose a single one and say it. His hand was steady on the hilt of his weapon but his heart was pumping pure adrenaline. Kill him. One of his voices asked no questions. Look what he has done... And he stands before you with his bloodied weapon ready. Kill him. Reese's eyes still focused solely on those of the other man. He heard that distant female sob once more, and his body suddenly felt a little more tense, his grip a little tighter. The smell of fresh blood hung in the air and he could feel the presence of the women around him.

A wiser voice spoke to him. He is a capable threat...

Reese continued to stare the man down, but straightened a little from his battle-ready stance. "Take what you want from this place and leave. No more victims." He growled the words, barely able to keep his newfound loathing for this stranger in-check.

[Storyteller]

The man tosses his head back an insane laughter rolls from his lips. When he lowers his gaze back to the four of you there is murder in his eyes.

"Oh there will always be victims of war and this one is just beginning, my pets" he says his voice thick as he draws a long wickedly curved dagger. The blade is all ready crusty with copper color of dried blood. His muscles bulge inhumanly as he falls back into a fighting stance.

"Come, let's get this over with. I have some one waiting my return" he motions to you with his dagger.





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Right, guys just do whatever. He's a pretty tough foe so no one hit kills or anything like that.

[vanesse]

If you say so >D
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Vanesse was sickened at the man before them. He was downright creepy, but at the same time, she was disgusted at his ruthless aura. Confirming his hostage was the last straw. Vanesse's hands moved on their own and forcefully flung Black Wings towards the man. The edges of the boomerang hit his torso in a vertical manner.

Right at that moment, Vanesse said, "He has a hostage! We have to save her. I'll keep him busy!"

[waterlily43]

Van was standing up to the horrible man. Van who was the youngest among them but so brave. How could Jaime just stand there cowering?

But her hands were shaking, if she used her whip now it wouldn't have much gumption. Van mentioned something about getting the hostage. She could do that. But first, to make things easier for them...

"Pain!" She yelled, hurling the spell through forcefully steadied hands that resumed their shakiness as soon as she released it. She edges towards the source of the distant sobbing carefully with her back to the wall, trying not to make her intentions obvious.

[Reese]

The boomerangs flew at a safe distance from him, but Reese still arched his body away from them in a reflexive manner when they whizzed by unexpectedly and slammed into the other man's torso. He heard Jaime scream out a Pain spell, and without missing a beat he drew his gunblade...

Or that was his intention, anyway.

He had barely gotten his hand around the hilt of Martyrdom when he witnessed Jaime's Pain recoil from its' intended target. There was only a split second for him to figure out what was happening. Reflect. The Pain spell snapped back in the direction it had come from and toward the nearest human being -- Reese. It slammed into him full-force before he could even draw his blade, sending him stumbling backward and taking the breath right out of his lungs. His stomach twisted and knotted in a crippling way and every nerve ending in his body felt excruciatingly hot and raw. His rapid heartbeat pounded in his ears so loudly he couldn't even hear the primal growl that escaped his own throat as he felt to one knee.

Reese was no stranger to Pain. It was Waverly's favorite spell and he'd watched her use it as a torture tactic several times. It was, in his book, the most sadistic spell ever conjured. It was certainly one of the most dreadful. Pain killed the weak and at times drove even the strongest to insanity. Reese buckled under the spell's wrath and struggled to at least open his eyes to what was going on around him.

The impact of Vanesse's twin boomerangs had caught their opponent off guard and momentarily stunned him. They may well have broken a few ribs, but the man didn't seem to be critically injured by the blow. It took less than a second for him to regain his stance, and the instant the Pain spelled reflected away from him he turned his body and zeroed in on Vanesse. He grinned at her in a maniacal way, and all along his arm from the hand around the hilt of his blade right up to his shoulder the muscles flexed and tightened.

He lunged at her in a swift and ferocious way. The bulk of his body moved with astonishing fluidity; his large limbs both agile and powerful like the limbs of a great Behemoth. He swung his blade downward upon her in a great arc...

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'Kay Ani, I guess you decide if you want him to harm Van ^_^