[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/h6KjA4H.png[/img][/center] [hider=September 19th, 2019 - 10:00 PM] [center][u][i]International Waters, North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey.[/i][/u][/center] "Unidentified aircraft. This is McGuire Airforce Base, identify yourself." Came a voice through the helicopter's radio. Kelly nervously looked over her shoulder at the passengers in her helicopter and desperately fought against the compulsion that had kept her in her seat for the last five hours. "[Color=E71CE4]Answer him. Tell him you have evacuated researchers on board[/color]." Gepetto's languid voice filled her ear as he lifted one of the ear cups of her headset off and whispered his orders to her while gently massaging her shoulders. Her ability to resist eroded and her eyes unfocused slightly as she opened the voice com. "McGuire Airforce Base, this is November-One-Two-Three-One-One-Four-Romeo-Foxtrot. Please switch to encrypted frequency and provide an operator with Top Secret clearance. Authentication Romeo-Delta-One-Zero-Three-Delta. Over." There was a hiss of static for a moment as the operator checked the clearance code and swapped the broadcast over to a secured line. In the back of the helicopter, Lucas and Joshua sat facing each other. Lucas' eyes were dull and unfocused while Joshua's were wild and wide. The dim lighting of the helicopter's interior was illuminated by the blazing gold of his eyes as he practically vibrated in his seat with the exertion of trying to free himself from Gepetto's order. "It's quite incredible how resilient you are, Joshua. Even bound by my orders and having been exposed to me for so long you're still desperately trying to free yourself." Gepetto said as he walked back into the passenger space of the aircraft, an arrogant smirk plastered across his face. "[Color=E71CE4]You may speak[/color]." Joshua opened his mouth full of teeth like serrated knives and spat in Gepetto's face. "You killed her. You killed her AND took prey from me." He growled, eyes burning with hatred. His hands dripped dark, viscous ichor from his claws digging into the flesh of his palms. Gepetto frowned and wiped his face with his sleeve before whipping his hand out and slapping Joshua across the face with a resounding clap. "Mind your manners around your betters, Joshua. Yes I killed her, but it really wasn't that great of a loss. How sad, the next stage in human evolution still desperately clinging to the ashes of the past. Don't tell me that you weren't just as disgusted as I was watching her fawn over that human." He said, wiping the blood off his knuckles from where he had split Joshua's lip. "She was [b]mine[/b]." Joshua's eyes and nostrils flared with fury as he spat the last word. His lip had already closed again, and he spat again at Gepetto. Gepetto sighed and wiped himself off again before producing a familiar-looking blade. The same one that had been embedded in the forehead of the real Joey before they boarded the helicopter. He took a moment to examine it, scraping the pad of his thumb across the edge, and then plunged it deep into Joshua's chest. There was a dull crack as the blade broke through Joshua's sternum, and the Hunter cried out in rage and pain. "What did I just say, Joshua?" Gepetto asked as calmly as one might comment on the weather outside. "Mind your manners." He violently twisted the blade to the side, the sound of bone and cartilage popping and snapping filled the interior of the aircraft. Joshua thrashed in his seat and gnashed his teeth, desperately trying to lash out at Gepetto. As he snarled, vessels in his eyes ruptured, turning the sclera of his eyes a deep, reddish black. "I'll kill you! I will tear you apart piece by piece and make you suffer every moment of it! I'll make you-" Gepetto rolled his eyes and slapped Joshua across the face again. A loud crack is heard as the bones in his jaw shatter and teeth are sent scattering across the floor. "That's enough, Joshua. Your empty threats bore me. [Color=E71CE4]You will forget everything that has happened since you boarded the helicopter[/color]." Joshua's head snapped back to his seat as his eyes rolled back in his head. He clutched at his temples and dug his talons into his skull, a maddened half-scream and half-laugh escaping his lips as Gepetto's order scrambled his mind and memory. His body convulsed as his laughter descended into wild, mindless mirth. His dislodged teeth began to regrow even as sinew and tendon popped and snapped while his jaw reassembled itself in its proper place. Bloody tears ran down his cheeks as his eyes snapped open, wild and unseeing as he howled with laughter. Then it was over, he slumped in his seat, head on his chest, breathing heavily and giggling to himself. Gepetto excused himself to the cabin again while Joshua began to stir. "[Color=E71CE4]Tell me what happened[/color]." Gepetto ordered Kelly, taking his seat next to her again. "We have been cleared to land. They're sending an escort out to guide us in and a special task force will be waiting for us on the ground." She responded, almost robotically as tears tracked through the filth that caked her face. "What a shame we won't make it all the way to the base, then. [Color=E71CE4]Continue your course, and do not attempt to escape the helicopter[/color]. It would be strange if the crash has no bodies in it, don't you agree?" Gepetto asked, standing up and taking a parachute from the wall behind her seat. He strapped it on and walked back into the body of the helicopter, holding up his hand as Joshua suddenly leapt to his feet. "Gepetto?!? How-" "[Color=E71CE4]Stop. Climb out onto the outside of the helicopter and disable the rotors. Then wait until the crash and die with these humans that your precious Witch worked so hard to save[/color]." He said, interrupting Joshua's outburst. Joshua's eyes flared gold with wrathful intensity as he extended his claws and stepped to the side of the aircraft, opening the door and hooking onto the outer wall. "[Color=E71CE4]You will stay where you are and go down with the ship[/color]." Gepetto said, turning towards the door Joshua had just began crawling through. Lucas looked up at Gepetto, nodded, then looked back at the same empty stretch of wall he had been watching since the flight first began. Walking over to the door Gepetto looked out as Joshua was making his way along the outside of the bird, claws tearing into the metal walls and creating makeshift handholds for his journey to the rotors. "I thank you, Joshua, for your essential aid in my escaping the island. I truly couldn't have done it without you." He said, smiling cheerfully as he leapt from the helicopter and started his descent to the earth far below. Joshua screamed in hatred as his body refused to obey him, carrying him ever closer to the motors that were keeping the aircraft aloft. Once there he drew his arm back and began hacking away at the armor around the motors, each time tearing away a bit more of the metal and exposing more of the sensitive electronics and mechanical components that maintained the vehicle's defiance of gravity. Plumes of black smoke began to pour from the exhaust vents as he set to work tearing apart the engine. Inside, Kelly watched on in impotent horror as warning lights and sirens began to sound while her craft rocked from side to side with each blow Joshua delivered to the rotors. Finally, with a great blast of fire and heat the fuel lines were severed and spewed hot oil and gasoline into the air where it burst into flames and sent the helicopter careening towards the shore. Joshua's claws were torn from the metal by the force of the violent spin the helicopter had entered and found himself in free fall. He shook his head and found his mind free and clear of Gepetto's control, the wind whipping past him loud as a gale. As he fell, he spotted a pitch black raven that was flying directly at him, and tilted his head curiously. The raven had an injured wing and piercing red eyes as it approached, seemingly dead set on reaching Joshua's tumbling body as the ground was racing up to meet him. "Hello pretty bird. What can I do for you?" He asked, laughing as he shouted over the roar of the wind and reached up to hold on to his hat only to find it had been blown off by the helicopter's rotors previously. He frowned and feigned patting his body down as though looking for something before shrugging and glancing down. "Speak up, I appear to have a rather urgent meeting to get to. Tragically unavoidable it seems." He said cheerfully to the raven that had now entered into a dive with him. It looked at him through those strangely familiar red eyes before suddenly pecking him right on the nose. "OW! What the hell! Get off of-" Another peck interrupted his tirade and Joshua lashed out with claws exposed at the bird, which darted away and tore off towards the ground. "Hey! Get back here you-" Joshua's eyes widened as he realized where the raven was flying. Straight for a broad parachute below him, lazily drifting towards the treeline at the edge of the shore. His eyes flared to life again, light shining in the darkened skies above the New Jersey coast. A laugh, little more than a chuckle bubbled up in his throat, as he folded his arms flat against his sides and aimed himself at the wide canvas target below. His laughter rose in intensity and volume until he was practically screaming his malevolent cackle into the night when he crashed into the figure beneath the parachute with claws and teeth bared. "What- How did you-" Gepetto's words were cut off by the sudden presence of Joshua's fangs tearing through canvas and flesh as he tore into the Puppeteer's throat. He frantically tore into fabric and tissue both as he savaged the shape beneath him while the struggling pair tumbled through the air towards the rapidly approaching ground. "Come on baby! Don't fight it! I'll show you a great time!" Joshua screamed as he laughed, teeth and lips dripping with the dark ichor that had replaced Gepetto's blood. Gepetto mustered his strength and attempted to throw Joshua off of him, grunting in pain, but he only succeeded for a moment as Joshua clung to the canvas and dragged himself back to the silenced monster. "Stop struggling! Can't you see it's better this way!? You and me, here at the end of the line! I'm the only one that's going to get what he wants tonight!" Furious screams and insane laughter accompanied them to the earth as Joshua's claws finally tear through the canvas separating the two fighting undead. Gepetto's eyes shone blue and gleamed with unrestrained hatred and malice even as he opened his mouth to speak. Joshua's hand whipped up in an instant and his claws found their mark, tearing the Puppeteer's throat open and spraying them both with black fluid. "Shh! Shh, baby! It's alright! No more words need to pass between us! Just shut up and let this happen!" He screamed, cackling wildly as he tore Elliot's knife free from his chest and lashed out at Gepetto's face. Gepetto yanked his head back in time to avoid a killing blow, but the knife's edge traced a line of searing agony across his face, splitting his left eye like a freshly peeled grape. Gepetto's hoarse, straining voice shrieked and gurgled through his ruined throat as they began smashing through tree branches on their way to the ground. The sound of breaking wood and snapping bones filled the woods as they tumbled into the dirt below, where Joshua's vision went dark. [/hider] [hider=September 19th, 2019 - 11:20 PM] [center][u][i]Bass River State Forest, New Jersey[/i][/u][/center] Joshua opened his eyes, blinking a few times to clear the haze and blurriness of his vision. He felt like he had ten shades of shit kicked out of him as well as the familiar tenderness that accompanied his healing. He quickly looked himself over and frowned at the tears and dirt that were now marring his mismatched dress clothes. "[i]Guess I'll need a new wardrobe[/i]." He thought, giggling a bit at the implication before his hands shot up to his head where he realized there was a distinct lack of a hat. "Oh mother[i]fucker[/i]." He swore, looking around at the dark forest before suddenly jumping to his feet and scenting the air. His eyes narrowed and began to glow in the dim light. "Gepetto." He growled, eyes darting around the dim forest as his nightvision came in. As his eyes readjusted to the darkness, he could finally see again just as if the sun was shining in the sky. He tracked the source of the scent to a shattered and felled tree, splattered in gore and a dark sticky fluid; the same liquid that had replaced the blood of all the successful subjects on the island. A few feet away was Elliot's butterfly knife, still slick with Gepetto's blood. Joshua crouched low and looked around for the body. A few yards away, Joshua found what he was looking for. Or at least, he found a pile of splattered remains that were still occasionally wrapped in the clothes Gepetto had stolen from Joey. "Good riddance." He said, spitting on the remains as he stooped to pick up Elliot's knife. He played with it for a second before his fingers slipped and the blade bit into his hand. He swore and stuck the wound into his mouth before being struck by the most profound deja vu. He thought back to his initial meeting with Elliot, and tried to think of how the assassin had flourished his knife to put it away. He picked the fallen blade back up and tried to copy what he had seen, leading to a satisfying click as the blade closed itself up. "[i]Not quite as stylish as you might have done it, oh fearless leader[/i]." He thought, stowing the knife into his coat pocket before sighing sadly at the realization that he had lost his hat. A caw in the dark. Joshua's eyes whipped around the gloom, beginning to glow again, until they came upon a tree branch on which sat a large raven with red eyes. Dangling from the branch upon which it perched was Joshua's hat. He looked at it, incredulously for a moment, before glancing back at the raven, which alighted with another caw and darted towards him. He brought his hands up to shield his face, only for the bird to peck the top of his head as it zipped past, flapping off into the darkness and out of sight. "That was... unlikely..." He thought, giggling a bit at the ridiculousness of the situation in which he found himself, but with a leap he had his hat back. All was right with the- His stomach growled. His eyes pulsed with light. It was time to hunt. A grin crept up onto his face. "Well, I guess it's time to go shopping." He said, his fangs descending into place with a click of sharp teeth against teeth. His grin became a wide eyed smile as he darted off, deeper into the woods, his laughter echoing in the dark as he picked up the scent of cooking meat and wood smoke. [/hider]