[hr][h1][i]The Pursuit of Science Arc P1.[/i][/h1]
[i]Written in collaboration with [b][@ToadRopes][/b][/i][hr]


"It's Quentin, by the way. No point hiding it anymore."

Nodding her head, Meifeng pushed off from the counter and crossed her arms. She took a few steps towards the door - before coming to an abrupt stop. She heard the familar heavy footsteps of the Nemesis, coming this way. "[i]Ssssssh![/i]" Meifeng said, before sliding to the wall, and putting her ear to it.

"It's coming." Meifeng said. She put her hands to her side, and deployed some water out of her pocket dimension.

Jen's heart started racing as her brain releashed adrenline into her system, whichly circulated through her veins. However, she took a deep breath, and thought about it for a moment. Decided to be the level headed one, she simply sighed, and thought about all the possibilities here.

"Guys," Jenny started off, hushing, "We can't fight that thing in here... we'll get cornered, and we'll get wrecked... and that's if he doesn't have back up."

"Then what do you suggest we do, [i]Jen?[/i]" Meifeng asked, she nearly hissed, but had to keep her voice down.

"... We pick the right moment, then pop out and catch it off guard, or [i]something[/i]. I don't think waiting here is going to bode well for us."

"Well," Ratchet whispered, "I might be able to help knock that guy down..." Her narrow eyes darted from left to right, looking for something that wasn't bolted down. She saw a conveniently placed operating table!

"I got an idea," Meifeng whispered, inspired by what Ratchet said. "If you can knock it down, I may be able to freeze it. Dunno if that'll work, but it can hold it down."

The footsteps of the Nemesis got closer, and Jennifer nodded her head. "Now's the time. Ratchet, you and Meifeng knock it down, and freeze it. If we can get it locked down, we might be able to buy us some time."

"Got it," Ratchet whispered, before placing her rip key into her prosthetic. She figured that if she could hurl a bicycle, an operating table or a gurney would fall into a similar vein. She winced as the footsteps grew louder. "Aw, tits, Big Ugly's getting pretty close."

Kate gaped at her.

"Sorry, cuz'," Ratchet said.

Skipping over to the door, Meifeng put her hand onto the doorknob, and turned it slowly, and quietly as she could. She gestured for everyone to get close, before she nodded, asking "Alright, everyone ready for this?" Meifeng asked.

Jennifer grabbed onto Anna, and hoisted her over her shoulder. [i]... Ready as I'll ever be, I guess.[/i] She hesitantly thought to herself, before opening her mouth to say, "Yeah." Nodding her head to add some confirmation to it.

"Let's hurl some shit," Ratchet said, before whapping her face again. "Dammit--d'oh!" she hissed.

"Good. 3... 2... 1.... showtime!" Meifeng quickly opened the door, and everyone shot out. The Nemesis wasn't too far away, but it just got a little faster upon seeing them. The first thing Meifeng did was pull as much water out as possible, and condensed it into an orb. She caused the orb to shoot out hard as she could will it into a cannon. It impacted the Nemesis's frame and sent him off balance. Leaving him perfectly open for Ratchet to finish the deal.

Meanwhile, Ratchet ripped her key out of her flywheel and felt the familiar mechanical wrumming of the axle. The wheel rumbled in her arm as Ratchet turned her attention to a heavy-looking operating table. She concentrated on the table and swept her arms in a broad arc, transferring the kinetic energy from her spinning wheel into the table and sending it blasting out the doorway and whacking the Nemesis upside its jaw.

"Nice shot, Blastoise," Ratchet said, glancing over at Meifeng.

The Nemesis fell straight down, and hit the ground with a loud thud. Feeling a bit proud of herself, Meifeng grinned a bit. Her job wasn't over just yet - she still needed to freeze the beast. She absorbed whatever was left of the water back into her pocket dimension as she charged forward. Opening her palms to spray the water out like a firehose, which soaked the Nemesis's longcoat. Before it could get back up, Meifeng jumped on it, landing on it's chest with one foot. Upon impact, all the water that surrounded the Nemesis froze solid. Holding the Nemesis in place. Wasn't the perfect way to keep it still, but it would buy them some time. She jumped right off of it, and roared,

"Serves you the fuck right, [i]freak![/i]" Meifeng said.

"Keep it down!" Jenny said, holding Anna over her shoulder. While they incapacitated the Nemesis, that definitely didn't mean that it was dead, or that there wasn't anyone else. "Let's hurry up, and get out of here." She said, as she turned around, and tried to walk, but she saw something at the other end of the hallway.

Two green orbs that looked a lot like eyes. and blurry air that she was familar with.

In an instant, the thing came charging right for the group... right for Meifeng. Jen was the only one that noticed this. She immediately dropped Anna, and did the first thing that came natural to her:

She got in the way. 

She stood in between Meifeng and the charging beast, she didn't know what compelled her to do this. She wasn't even sure if she could survive [i]everything[/i], but it was a growing affection for Meifeng that was driving all of her actions.

And when it hit her, it hit hard. All that was seen was a hole suddenly appearing in Jen's chest, and two large hands, with long, bony, fingers, appearing through the fresh wound. Coated in her blood. Jen looked down, and a panic coursed through her body as all she could feel is pain... then all she felt was regret for what she just did.

"I..." Jen choked out the words, as blood began dripping out of her mouth. The invisible creature withdrew it's hands, and Jen dropped to the ground. Seemingly lifeless.

"[i][b]JEN![/b][/i]" Meifeng screamed at the top of her lungs as tears welled up in her eyes. This... they just gone too far.

Another pair of glowing orbs had appeared in the hallway in front of them. Loudly screeching to signal it's arrival.

Meifeng's heart sank upon the sight of her friend [i]dead[/i]. Every part of her brain was telling her to go over there... but her body was telling her that they needed to fight above all else. She sobbed, and wiped her own tears. Before she pulled water out of her pocket dimension, and created two large orbs of water over her hands.

"Alright, you fucks... I'm going to make [i]all[/i] of you [i][b]PAY FOR THAT![/b][/i]" She screamed, as she got ready for the fight and fate.

[hr]

After the Nemesis took a tumble, the girls ran away. It tried to push itself back up by it's hands, but the ice made it slip, and it hit the ground again. Causing the ice to crack. Raising it's fist up into the air, it brought it down, and shattered the ice with a blow that broke the ice into pieces. Which finally allowed it the leeway it needed in order for it to get back up. It quickly looked around - red eyes shining a light much like a flashlight - before realizing that the girls had disappeared. It's eyes flickered back to normal, before it turned around to search for it's master. 

Berlioz.

It seems his master was coming, running down the hallways. The Nemesis simply stood there. Berlioz ran up, and he saw the Nemesis standing straight up - he peered around the aberrant and saw the broken pieces of ice.

"Nemesis, what happened?" He asked, looking up at it.

Nemesis didn't respond.

"Was there... was there a breakout?" Berlioz asked.
 
The Nemesis nodded it's head up and down.

"[i]Crap![/i]" Berlioz said, clawing his hand, and looking around. He quickly centered his attention on the Nemesis and shouted, "What are you standing here for, then?! [i]After them![/i]"

The Nemesis turned it's body around, and started walking off.

Berlioz groaned. They had to detain the escapees soon as possible! Before they break anyone else out, and cause all sorts of havoc... However, if worse comes to worse, he'll cause the whole base to explode, and call it a night. He wanted to come back to the base with results - he [i]needed[/i] to come back to the base with results.

He quickly pulled out his revolver, and ran down the hallways of the base. Until he came up to a big metal door. He was told not to do this unless the situation was dire... test subjects roaming the base, causing all sorts of destruction was desire enough. There was a doorknob with a keypad above it, he punched in a code, and stepped aside. Two masses of blurry air proceded out of the door, and sudden two sets of glowing orbs - one yellow, and one bright-green - appeared.

The Hands of Science told him not to let more than one Ghoul out at a time because they'll form a pack, and will stop listening to orders. However, they would be instrusmental in taking out the escapees.

"There's people wandering around the base, out of their chains, find them!" Berlioz pointed down the hallway.

The two Ghouls shot down the hallways fast as racecars, leaving behind only a whip of air they displaced with their immense motion.

Berlioz watched. He nodded his head and began walking towards the security office to monitor things from a distance.

[hr]

It's inhuman frame visible, the first ghoul was attached to a wall. It's claws dug into the stone that made up the tunnels. It looked over it's shoulder to see a rock flying towards it. It quickly moved to the side, as the rock hit the wall. Causing one hell of a bang. It let out a screech as it attempted to brush the dust off of it's body, but Lihua wouldn't let up. Concrete spikes violently erupted from the ground, and the Ghoul leaped up before it could even come close. Clinging to the ceiling, and crawling along the ceiling.

[i]"Damn it!"[/i] Lihua hissed, because of a mixture of pain and aggravation. This thing was quick. Far quicker than her. Her power could decimate this thing if she could get a solid hit on it. However, the epiphany came when she realized that she was being too rash. Not employing her usual brand of patience, and defense. She let out a sigh, and put her right leg back, and lowered both hands to stomach level, left hand was further than the right. Fingers up. Her eyes were on the Ghoul.

It quickly dropped down, and turned towards Lihua, and began a blind charge. She let out a sigh, as she had to time this just right....

Once it got close, Lihua raised one hand upwards, and lowered the other. She brought them inwards as if she was crushing something. She chipped pieces of concrete off the ceiling and created a cloud of dust, and afterwards, created three concrete spikes pointing outwards to impale the Aberrant, concealed by the dust. Everything inside the cloud was invisible, but the Ghoul released a ghostly screech. Lihua was locked into place by her power, but she used as much of her strength as possible to move. Once she was released, she got away from the cloud.

With a flick of her wrist, she pulled the dust cloud away. It revealed that her gambit was a success, and the Ghoul had impaled itself on one of the spikes. Blood was dripping down from the concrete blade as it was struggling to pull itself off. It went right through it's body - the tip poking out from the other side. Now, the invisible had been deactivated, obviously due to the gross damage done to it, and Lihua could see the abomination in the flesh. White skin, with pitch black stripes all over it. It seemed to be grossly malnourished, and was literally skin and bone. What a horrid beast. She briefly wondered if it was even human to begin with. Not that she brought too much attention to the fact.

She pulled her arm back, and the concrete spikes receded back into the tunnel with minimal cracking, and a wave of blood and organs came flowing as it writhed in pain. Hopelessly putting it's hands to it's open hole, before it finally perished.

"[i]Disgusting creature.[/i]" Lihua cursed it as she caused the earth to split, and kicked the Ghoul inside of it. It fell down, and she sealed the lid over the concrete. The boys at NEST will dig it up later for testing, she just couldn't leave the thing out in the open like that, for any of it's buddies to find it and tip them off that the jig is up. She'd clean up the blood, but there's no time, and it's likely to just get glossed over in this darkness.

Now, that left one thing. Lihua shined her shotgun's flashlight on the door, and approached it. She was ready to tear this door down to get to her daughter. She slowly walked up to it, and was expecting it to be locked, but it was [i]ajar[/i] (Heartbreaker forgot to close the door behind her). Lihua, carefully, pushed the door open with the Mossberg, and saw the hallways of the base. Barely illuminated by the lights above. She let out a sigh, and turned off the flashlight. Slowly walking with her shotgun drawn. 

[i]Into the mouth of the beast, indeed.[/i]