BurningDaisies

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

What Titan? I only see a pirate. =/
While I like eye patches and scurvy, I really wanted to see a giant woman

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

I'm back from DragonCon! That was fun.
Anyway, sometime in the next couple of days, I should be able to get a post in.

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

So I'm going to be out of touch this next week.
I saved up a grand to spend the weekend in Atlanta in DragonCon. So if I'm more scarce than usual. That's why.

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

---

Jennifer, Meifeng, and Anna

_{by @BurningDaisies and @Mr Allen J}

---

Anna was steadily gaining consciousness. Whatever cocktail of sedatives and painkillers still coursing through her veins was starting to wear off. The anaesthetics, however, were still in full swing. Her mind was still caught in a thick haze, but she was nominally aware of her surroundings. Even if everything around her looked liked an out-of-focus watercolor painting, she could still hear Meifeng's voice, but didn't have the strength to respond. Meifeng held up a hand, which Anna couldn't tell apart from the table behind it. Pain lanced through her head each time she tried to break through the malaise, until finally she whispered out a few words, full of snark and sass. "I can't see... you idiot."

Meifeng simply sighed, and dropped her head. It was hopeless. Anna was too drugged at this point. Meifeng wished that she could help her. She really did, but there was only so much she could do.
She groaned, "Love you too, Anna."
She clenched her fist, and nearly felt like crying. Would this cause permanent damage? God, she hoped not. Meifeng rolled her head to the side when she noticed that Ratchet was getting mighty talkative with the prisoners. She saw them, and they looked like Ratchet's siblings, or something. And she hoped to God that they were alright. She felt a little shitty knowing that they were in the thick of all this too. It should be worse for Ratchet.

"Don't worry," Meifeng turned towards them, keeping Anna steady. "I'll get us out of this-"

With smile on his face and an off-key hum, Geer strolled into the room. No fear or suprise on his face as he fixed each fugitive with an awkward stare. Through his horn-rimmed glasses, he met everyone's eyes with a distant expression He blinked once, turned, and approached a medical cart. Without an ounce of hesitation, he calmly picked up a silver scalpel, and with an apologetic grin turned to Jen, who was the closest. "Sorry for the intrusion, I was just looking for something to scoop out the last of the peanut butter." As quickly as he entered, Geer waltzed out, shouting "The keys are in the security room, by the way!" over his shoulder to stunned onlookers.

"What." Jen had completely stopped her search for the keys, just to stare at him.
Though, she was slowly reaching around for something sharp - just in case he attacked; maybe she could put a pencil through his eye or something. Anything. She was on guard, but surprisingly he didn't attack at all. He just grabbed a scalpel, and walked out of the room as if he never saw them. But, Jen wasn't anywhere near stupid enough to just assume that this guy was just going to forget about what he saw. He was going to get that giant thing, and they were going to destroy the whole lot of them. Jenny quickly whipped around towards Ratchet - noticing that her family had been captured, too. She remembered them... Yeah, she remembered their faces. How couldn't she? They were in the fair, in the middle of all that chaos: the place that Jen first met Ratchet. With all the bloodshed and chaos that took place that day, it wasn't a pleasant thing to remember. I... honestly wish we met under better circumstances. Jen quietly thought to herself. She honestly didn't know what to say to Ratchet, or her cousins. So, she choose to say nothing. Just quietly acknowledge them, and focus on the task at hand.

"Guys... we have to go stop him." Jen said, as she took her hands out of the cabinets. "If he tips them off, we're screwed." She was dead serious.

Meifeng on, the other hand, kept her hands on Anna to keep her standing up. Every bone in her body prepared for the fight. To pull water out of her pocket dimension, then fighting with all that she has. Because she was practically raised to never go down easy. To die standing on her feet, instead of lying underneath her enemy's foot. Yet, she couldn't say that she wasn't afraid. Her eyes were wide, and her hands were shaking. She remained strong to the best of her ability. She was... honestly caught off guard when the strange man simply just walked into the room. He didn't fight, or cry for his freaks, or anything. He just grabbed a scalpel, mentioned peanut butter, and walked out,telling them that they'll find the keys somewhere else. Jen was right though. They have to go after him.

"Agreed." Was all Meifeng said, before she practically shoved Anna over to Jen, and ran right out the door after Geer. Deploying her water, which hit the ground and dragged along it. She charged after him, hoping to catch up and give him one hell of a beating for all the things they'd done to Anna.

"Mei-" Jen shouted after her - but she was interrupted when Anna was sent flying towards her. Jen had to take a step back, and when Anna hit her, she felt the impact. - but managed to catch and wrap her arms around Anna. She let out a sigh, and looked around. Jen was hoping that Meifeng didn't ruin everything herself. She turned to Ratchet, and her cousins, "C'mon, we gotta go. We'll come back...." For all of her talks of heroism, Meifeng left Anna behind. Then again, there wasn't much they could do with Anna - nor was there much she could do herself. Jen pulled Anna along with her out the door, because leaving her in here didn't seem all that smart.

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

Unless the building is a Faraday cage. That fucks up pretty much all transmissions.

However... I suppose it could be tracked to said building, but someone would have to pull the geolocation data. Or better yet: already be keeping her under surveillance!

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

---

Interlude: The Hands of Science

_{by @BurningDaisies and @Mr Allen J}

---

With a timely ding, the buttered popcorn was ready. Geer always liked to make "reviews" into "dinner and a movie". He pulled a steaming bag from the microwave and emptied its contents into a large party bowl. He set it down on the table adjoining his desk. Before him was an array of monitors and expensive-looking flatscreen showing a myriad of diagnostic data and other pseudo-scientific esoteries. With a flourish of the fingers and some clickety-clacking, the boring screens came to life. Each screen showed an image of a captured Metahuman with their assigned experiment number showing on the bottom of the screen. Some were simply copies of photo IDs others faces twisted by pain or fear.

Professor Geer turned to the crew of hired miscreants behind him and gestured to the screen. "All right, ladies and gentlemen!" He swiveled in his desk chair and with a grandiose gesture motioned at the screens behind him. "May I have your attention please! For tonight's entertainment, I present to you this one-time exclusive viewing of the Subject Case Studies!" His face lit up with glee. "So which one would you like to watch first?" Geer could scarcely contain his enthusiasm.

"... And you're acting like we're a family getting together to watch a Disney movie, or something." Heartbreaker rolled her eyes, as she spun her revolver around her finger at blinding speeds.

The rest of the group were gathered together in the room, each sitting down - all were present except for Ghoul, and the Nemesis, for they were out on their mass kidnapping runs.

"I just tell the boss-lady it's a team-building exercise to promote synergy." Geer snickered. "She loves that crap."

"I'll show her a real way to promote synergy when I shove my boot up your ass." Heartbreaker muttered underneath her breath.

"Enough of this, Heartbreaker," Berlioz stated, crossing his arms, and crossing his legs as well. "Geer, review footage of subject 31."

"Excellent choice, sir!" Two mouse-clicks and the footage began to play. A few of the monitors flashed with cardio-rhythmic graphs and one with a stereoscopic visual showing the energy readings.

The lights dimmed in the room and the screen showed cruel images of Anna struggling against her restraints. Face down, she tried to resist the long needle penetrating the base of her skull. Before the instrument ever made contact, activity flickered to life on the diagnostic screen just below.
"Keep an eye on the peak output." A mouthful of popcorn muffled his words.
The needle dug a couple inches deep, while the video showed Geer injecting some seemingly unremarkable, clear fluid into Anna's head. Within a few seconds, a shimmering wave of air burst out of Anna as if her body had exhaled a percussive wave. It even rocked the camera. A potent ethereal sheen of translucent white light poured along Anna's skin. The energy meter, which was starting to show a spike on the graph jumped beyond the upper limit and froze with an error. The output overloaded the sensors.
"I don't know how the hell she does it, but this girl is a regular Energizer Bunny. Like a walking battery." He paused. "A battery we can use."

Geer fast-forwarded the video and resumed it on a frame showing where the white light of Anna's body was being siphoned off along two vine-like leads, which connected to a keg-shaped, metal case.
"At first, I assumed I could convert and hold a charge. Initial testing generally shitty results. I started with lithium ion, which exploded. The other batteries likewise exploded or burnt out. Good news though! I found a use for the three-week-old beet juice in the fridge: it’s part of the electrolyte solution. As it turns out, using organic materials works infinitely better."
After a few minutes of medical ministrations and detaching the leads from Anna's skin, the video cut to a heavily magnified view of some organic cells. "For this test, I used Average Joe human cells. No metahuman potential whatsoever. Plain. Useless. Boring. But! When exposed to subject 31's metahuman energy...." His commentary trailed off as he hit a few keys and brought up the same energy meter with a timed graph. A flash of white washed over the cells. It was brief and at a glance there was no apparent difference. The meter however arched up beyond the sensor's range, dropped low, and plateaued at a steady line above the base. "...the host cells absorb it."

"Interesting..." Berlioz put his hand on his chin as he thought about all the possibilities that Anna's opened up alone. Every word that Geer said hung around in his head for a moment or two, before he put the pieces together. "We can definitely use her in experiments with other subjects."

"I don't know what the hell any of this means..." Heartbreaker started off, before she stopped twirling her gun, and put it back into her holster. "But if you need me to shoot someone, you know who to call."

Geer beamed. "It means subject 31 can imbue metahuman potential into any host, even ordinary humans. With a bit more testing, I think we can use her to create metahumans." He turned to Berlioz with a childish grin, like he'd triumphed over the playground. "Tell that to your stockholders!" He chuckled. "Who doesn't like playing God? Am I right?"

At Geer's last statement, Megan became a little nervous - her face twisted up into a frown. Before awkwardly laughing. "Oh yeah, right..." She said. Fortunately, she was ignored, by the others.

"... You act like this some big discovery, Geer-y," Heartbreaker dryly said, before shrugging. "You just found another way to do what better scientists have accomplished. Hahahaha...." She taunted Geer, with a wry grin on her face.

Despite the other's reaction, Berlioz's was a little better, "This is excellent, Geer." He nodded. "I believe we should get started soon as possible, this might be next big thing for the Hands of Science."

Heartbreaker and Berlioz exchanged glances, before Heartbreaker just rolled her eyes and faced the screen.

"Give me enough time, and I think I can have some fire-breathing circus mice ready in time for annual reports." Geer mused. He seemed dead serious.

"... Hopefully one of them will burn your ass up." Heartbreaker muttered under her breath.

He paused to accommodate a sudden epiphany. "...I'd love to see what it does to plants! You think the boss-lady will let me borrow her ficus?"

---

Meifeng, Jennifer, & Anna

_@ToadRopes

---

--Meanwhile...

"Meifeng," Jennifer blankly said, while taking a good hard look at the shackles that are binding them to these operating tables. After looking at them, she got an idea. One that could save everybody. "Can you freeze water or something like that?"

"Yeah, but I don't see-"

"Get it in the shackles, and get it in deep, then freeze it." Going off the way the cuffs were put together, Jennifer got the idea that a little bit of ice should be able to expand, and break the cuffs open. That, or it does nothing and they're stuck here until they all die. Worth a shot though.

It was... difficult. Difficult using her power bound like this. Usually Meifeng uses her power through body movements, which logically meant that getting bound greatly inhibited that ability. Still, she didn't have any better ideas. Meifeng lifted her head up - far as these binds would allow her - and looked at the shackle around her wrist. She absorbed all water back into her pocket dimension, pulled it back out, and covered the cuff with cold water. It took a little bit of effort, but Meifeng managed to force the water into the crevices, as much as she could, then, as Jen suggested, froze the water. The sound of water snap freezing filled her ear, before Meifeng wondered for a moment what to do next.

"... Fuck." She muttered.

"Try pulling it apart." Jen softly said. There's no way in hell that it could stay together like this.

This was even harder, since Meifeng couldn't ice as good as water - yet, she didn't let that stop her for a moment. She focused really hard, and then tried pulling the ice inside her cuffs apart. Her arm was shaking, along with the whole cuff. Meifeng was giving it her all, pushing herself past the limits she believed were set on her. However, all her hard work paid off with a satisfying snap - the cuff was broken open. Meifeng laughed, excited that she got her wrist free. She converted the ice back into water, and then put the water into her other shackle, and froze it. Fortunately, with free hand control, she was capable of breaking it open far easier. After a minute, the other bind snapped open. She liberated her legs with the help of both arms. She stood straight up off the table. Meifeng put water in the collar around her neck, and froze it... and it fell off of her.

"You did it!" Jennifer answered in a hushed whisper. "Quick, get us out of here! Find a key, or something!"

Meifeng looked around for a moment, before running over to the drawers, which weren't too far away. She ran through each drawer like a madwoman. By the time she hit the third drawer, she found a keychain, and smiled. She quickly ran back, over to Jen, and put the key inside the shackles, before turning it, and opening it. One by one, the cuffs fell off Jennifer's limbs, until she was free. Meifeng did the same to Ratchet, then walked over to Anna... and felt extremely discouraged. The girl was drugged out of her mind.

"I'm going to get you out of here, Anna..." Meifeng said, looking at Anna as she turned the keys that unbound Anna. "... I promise."

While Meifeng was getting everyone free, Jennifer ran over to the door, and peaked out. It was dimly lit - but she couldn't see anybody. Which is great... but it meant they couldn't stick around. If someone comes around with them gone, they're going to immediately set the red alert. And if they're here, unchained, when someone comes around... well, that goes without saying. She kept her eyes peeled.

Meifeng grabbed Anna by the wrist, and pulled her up to her feet, holding her friend up. "Okay, Anna, can you walk?" Meifeng asked - even if Anna couldn't, she'd get dragged out of here.

The pain in Anna's head was unbearable. Thousands of knives stabbed at her nerves and it spread to every part of her body that she tried to move. Her body felt so heavy she thought she would collapse under her own weight. Inch by inch she struggled to gain her balance, but the more she did the more the pain dug into to her; she would've screamed, but fortunately for the others, only a weak cry came out. Her legs buckled as something inside her snapped. She felt herself slowly drifting back into a dark, empty dream. Anna mouthed the words "I want to go home." She tried to make a sound, but none came.

Good God, what the hell did they do to her? Meifeng thought to herself, as she watched Anna shamble up to her feet. She could barely even move! What.... Meifeng isn't going to let this slide. No. Each and every one of these fuckers are going to pay for this. She clenched her fists, and huffed. She had to calm herself down. Don't get ahead of yourself, Meifeng. Right now, you're the only person that can fight. Meifeng thought to herself, before sighing.

"Let me give you a hand," Meifeng said, as she scooped down, and put herself under Anna's shoulders. Using her far more able-body to hold Anna up.

"Alright, I think we should get a move on... like right now." Jennifer whispered back to the group. "But... I have an idea. A plan."

"What is it?"

"There has to be other people here - they've all but said it - we should get them out, too." Jennifer suggested. "It'd mean more manpower and... it just doesn't feel right leaving anyone in here."

"Yeah... I'm going to save everyone." Meifeng said, firm and assured.

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

... the lull was getting unbearable.

@Mr Allen J

Yeah...I know what you mean.

It's difficult to keep up with the momentum sometimes, which is why I don't play in casual much anymore, but the not having any momentum is just as bad.

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

You've yet to bore me...

I accept this~

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

....because this seems to be a higher level advanced RP and stuff.

@Blackmist16

Really? Maybe I have a skewed perspective, but I've never thought of this RP as "high advanced" or whatever. The players just seem to bring high quality content to the table. *shrugs*

Ah, nevermind. Just ignore me. =P

Verthaven: A Bloody Paradise [Completed]

Oh! Well... I suppose I can postpone and experiment on her a bit more. =P