DarlingRascal
MaeB
ihinka
Redking0380
Ikan
Dioxide
Aku the Samurai
Dane
Karma Love
Jennifer Caspin, & Haruka Takashiro.
(collaboration between @Mr Allen J and @tsukune)
Lower-South Royer Town, Prince Ed-Field_While Baybride bled... Jennifer merely sat in the living room of their apartment, with a DS in her hands.
It was the best Jennifer could do, after all. Her hunt for answers lead to nowhere... and where the hell could she even look to begin with? Jennifer ultimately gave up, and just resigned to waiting in Cindy's apartment for all of this to blow over. Not like she could do anything. The Hound and the Founding Family were in the range of... Meifeng, Quentin, and the others. She entertained the idea of joining DOVE, but she knew her mental state would make that... difficult. Fighting the Family, regardless of what they did, would be foolish, and she had little stake in this.
But, what if the Family had something to do with her mind?
Well, there's sure as hell nothing Jenny could do about it. As she was playing the newest Pokemon, she could only shut the game off, and sigh in frustration as she laid on her back and put a hand over her head. Her job had... closed for now, and Jennifer probably wouldn't have been in a rush to go there anyway. She wished this nightmare could be over already. Over so she could get back to normal, and work out this train-wreck she called her life.
God damn it, she really wished she had someone to talk to right now.
Meifeng, Quentin, and Reed, were busy fighting the Family (well, that's what Jennifer presumed), Cindy was kidnapped by them, Shizuka was... hell if she knew what he was doing (nor did she really care, he wasn't that good of a talker if she had to be honest with herself), Haruka was probably finding a nice rock to hide under, and Asuma... Well, he was one of the people who was the first to go missing during the kidnapping wave that overcame the city. That's what Jenny thought; he suddenly stopped showing up to work, and suddenly stopped answering her phone calls.
Yeah, didn't seem suspicious at all.
On the plus side... this downtime has really allowed Jennifer to regenerate that hand of hers. She flexed her fingers on her hand... which was smaller than it should be, and on closer inspection, not fully formed yet. But it was enough to hold and play a video game, so that's that. Though, she couldn't help but feel loss in knowing that she has lost her hand, and this was just a shallow replica of it. Weird. Maybe she should just forget about it and stop worrying about the small things so much.
Then, a rattling sound could be heard coming from the balcony, which was followed by a muffled voice calling out her name, "...Jennifer?" Other than the ruffled hair and clothes from riding the wind to get all the way up to Cindy's suite, this person still looked the same as before she had last seen them. More importantly, she wasn't expecting this person to show up with such an entrance, at all.
Jennifer raised a blonde eyebrow. Okay, what the hell was Haruka doing here? Well, if he was coming in through here, it had to be urgent. She felt a little annoyed that her moping was interrupted... but she was innately glad to see Haruka. She opened the door, and was quick to say, "...There's a door, y'know? And what are you doing here?"
"It's faster for me to fly up here than climbing the stairs, with the elevators out of service and all," Haruka replied, walking into the living room after Jennifer. He couldn't tell her that he was here mainly because of Shizuka's paranoia, knowing that they were on bad terms with each other. That aside, he did want to see her, anyway. "And... uh, just to check if you're okay." He shrugged. "You know, your hand... and headache." This was the second time he chose to get straight to point with her; her opinion of him would probably sour further if he kept continuing to be so direct with her, but he really didn't like to admit that Shizuka was always right, that they didn't have much time to waste on pleasantries.
Jennifer put her freshly regenerated hand up for Haruka to see. "Well, you don't have to worry about the hand, heh..." she quietly chuckled at her own joke. "I guess you can say that I'm doing fine as I'll ever be... just here alone... in Cindy's apartment."
Haruka let out a sigh of relief; that was one problem checked out. "...How about your head?" he pressed again. "I heard that... you kept having migraines ever since you got assaulted for your hand."
"They've been going down..." Jennifer lied as she quickly looked off to the side, before she caught herself. "...No, I can't do that anymore," She trailed off. "I've been feeling headaches nonstop lately... I just can't do anything... and worst of all, I'm starting to see these weird visions... like me - or someone - floating in a big test tube or something."
Haruka's brows furrowed - his twin had warned him about the possibility his phasing power might have amplified the side effects of the mind control on her. From the looks of it, it was affecting her worse than what Shizuka had predicted. "...Can you tell me more about these visions?"
"I... don't know how to explain them..." Jennifer trailed off, a hand touching her temple. "During the worst of the headaches I see this place in my mind's eye... a vivid memory... I'm floating in a liquid tube, and I see a shadow of someone in front of me..." She scratched the side of her head as she looked at Haruka briefly. "...You probably think I'm crazy now."
Sounds like a laboratory of sorts, Haruka mused, his jaw tightened with muted irritation at the next thought. What else have they done to her? Then he shook his head at her last line. "I believe you. I'm glad you still keep to the promise from the time we had spoken at the cafe." He stared straight into her eyes, ready to drop the bomb on her. "...Well, you are likely being put under some kind of mind control by the Family."
"M-Mind control?" Jennifer stuttered as she tried to wrap her head around it. "It... can't be. It has to be memory alteration... but why would they target me of all people?" She said as she sat down on the couch, playing with her thumbs for a moment. "I'm nobody important... Never was..." She looked at Haruka. "...Never will be."
"The Family was probably after your regeneration power," Haruka responded in a strained voice. "I don't know why they would go so far to brainwash you on top of getting a sample of your ability, but you heard the announcement before the power outage happened, about some 'grand goal to improve our lives'... the Machine they plan to use to destroy Baybridge. Their leader - Blake, I think he is the one - talked about 'perfection' of the human race, of our genes... It is possible that your power to grant near-immortality was what they need to achieve that 'perfection'."
"Huh?" Jennifer scratched the side of her head as she tried to process all of this. Who was Blake? What is the Machine? "Haruka, you need to slow down a bit there... I have no idea about this Machine or who Blake is."
...Oh. Jennifer wouldn't understand what he was talking about, since no one beyond the odd group that Shizuka had rounded up knew all these information. However, he had one more thing to ask before it was his turn to tell her his story. "Have you tried to look around for some answers? And I hope you didn't do that alone..." he trailed off, adding as an afterthought.
"Well... I went to meet a friend of mine about it..." Jennifer bluntly said as she scratched the back of her neck. "Hailey Guinn... turns out she didn't know anything about it, and I have no where to look... so I've been in here. Playing games." She just shrugged. "But, I need to get to the bottom of this... I don't know what this Family would even want anything to do with me, but I guess standing in the sidelines and hoping it works itself out isn't going to cut it."
She looked up at Haruka. "Right?"
Haruka frowned at what Jennifer was telling him. Something felt a little... off, but he didn't know where this strange feeling of dissonance was coming from. In the end he went with a nod in response to her question. "That is another reason for my, um, sudden visit. I want to help you - we want to help you." He paused to recollect his thoughts, then he began, "I know you hate my brother, but even if he was suspended from RAVEN he had been working nonstop to gather intel in secret, trying his best to make some sense out of all this madness so that we can have a better chance of stopping the Family from repeating the Verthaven disaster again, this time in Baybridge. He told me about your hand and headache, and about how his power might have worsened your condition unknowingly when he used his ability to check for any internal injuries you might have sustained..." he trailed off to catch his breath, before he went on. "He wanted me to get in contact with you as soon as possible to see how much you are aware that your mind has been tampered with by the Family, and also look for ways to release you from the brainwash, or at least any weaknesses we can exploit to help you resist the control... But it is my own choice to meet up with you."
Jennifer nodded her head. "Like I said, I figured that there was someone after me," Jenny said as she looked at Haruka. She didn't care for Shizuka, but at the same time she couldn't deny that he was dedicated. "I had no idea it was this Family even was until they broadcast it like that... Wasn't that crazy, just announcing who they are like that?" Jennifer just had to note.
Haruka shrugged. "Well, they are the literal embodiment of madness this time..." he trailed off, recalling the time when they had fought against the Devil, Luis and his Changelings back at Verthaven. "That announcement was nothing compared to all the other things they had done. The Family was the one who created and set loose the Beast that destroyed Prague."
Prague... Jennifer herself didn't hear much about it - except from her boss Megan - but she could feel the effects of it from all the way over here. "The Beast was like... a Verthaven-level shitstorm," Jenny said as she looked Haruka in the eye. "They could fuck everything up if they can just create them."
Haruka stared at her for a minute before he looked away. "Also, you are not the only one who got subjected to their mind control game. The Family kidnapped people from all over the world and brainwashed the victims into obedience, to serve the Family and even die for them."
She was about to say something, but she caught herself before she got up off the sofa and walked over towards the door. "...That just proves it." Jennifer started off. "We gotta save them from whatever the hell the Family has them under... It makes me cringe thinking of what sick things they're doing to them."
"That isn't all," Haruka continued in a quiet tone. "There is this group within the Family - they call themselves the 'Blessed Three', if I remember correctly - whose members might have undergone some form of experiment... or 'ritual' of sorts, that made them into extremely powerful Metahumans." He shook his head at Jennifer. "From what I have heard about them from my brother and Holly, we cannot hope to stand a chance against them without a solid plan, and charge into their den carelessly, all alone."
"Blessed Three..." Jennifer said, before she had a slight headache and... Oh God. It's starting to kick in. Jennifer looked at Haruka with worried eyes. "I don't know why... but I feel as if I am... resonating with those words. I just get a headache." Jennifer said, before she realized she was rambling. "In other words, I think I know them... Or whoever did this to me doesn't want me to."
Haruka was alarmed at the anxious expression on Jennifer's face at the mention of the Blessed Three. Was it possible for the mind control be related to them? In Marcelle's log he had heard with the rest of 'Team Spy' (as Shizuka had called - which the elder twin felt that his counterpart was hopeless coming up with a name that didn't sound remotely lame), the Blessed Three controlled the Secretaries and played with their brainwashed marionettes around their fingers as if they were dispensable... Haruka couldn't help but grit his teeth at the thought of how they treated Baybridge like a giant reality chessboard, and its people the pawns of a bloody game for their own sadistic entertainment.
The empathetic side of him was telling him that he should let it go and stop putting pressure on Jennifer's current mental state, but the logical side that he shared with his emotionless brother (that he didn't like to admit) made him press her further. No more running away, no more distant politeness and pushing each other away, no more pseudo-respect for each other's personal space that had proven time and again than saving the people precious to them - with everyone simply played into the hands of the masterminds, losing the ones they loved...
He stood up and walked towards her, stretching out a hand to her with a worried look. "I'm sorry about triggering your migraine with all these intense questions from me, but I would like to know as much as what you can remember about them. Anything that you know, anything you feel that doesn't sit well with you."
"I... need a moment," Jennifer tried her best to recall something, anything about this Blessed Three, but all she could recall was nothing. She received a slight headache as she merely looked up at Haruka. "I can't recall anything... I don't know, just thinking about that name gives me a bad feeling, so is that a start?"
Haruka pursed his lips as he continued to watch her. "...I guess that is a start," he replied slowly. "Maybe you have met them face to face before, then they erased that memory from your mind? Or one of the Three was responsible for putting you under the mind control power?"
He had probably pushed her too far today - maybe he should save further questioning for another time. "Um, anyway... We managed to gather unaffiliated people who shared similar goals as us to our side, and together we might be able to take down the Family once and for all," Haruka said, a small smile appearing on his face as he recalled how he had first met Aislin, and later the gathering with Malik and Rhea sharing the logs that belonged to the African's friend working undercover in such a deranged organization. "We do need all the help and resources we can get our hands on to better prepare ourselves."
Though, he had a few more things to add on, "We'll be glad to have you on board, but only if you have the resolve to join us in our fight against the Family till the bitter end." The expression on his face hardened. "Shizu will probably say something along the lines of your unstable emotional state being a liability, and the possibility that the Family won't hesitate to use the mind control to turn you against all of us... But I fear that this is a fight you will have to face yourself, and it is only a matter of time the Family will hunt you down again, no matter how far or hard you try to run away from them."
"...Then I can't run away." Jennifer said. "My life belongs to me, and only me, Haruka. I have the the power to fight back, so I'm going to use it."
Haruka regarded Jennifer for a moment. She seemed to have made up her mind - for now. He still couldn't help worrying about her, about the worst-case scenario where he would be forced to fight against her if the Blessed Three activated the mind control on her again. No, he and the rest of their odd group would do everything they could to find a way to break her free from the powerful cerebral dominance the Family had over her, before she lost her mind to those despicable extremists... and was forced to kill her own friends.
"...However, you are not alone," he finally said with a gentle smile. "There is only so much one person can do on their own, but you can do more if you try to rely on your friends more. Have more faith in us."
Jennifer nearly cried... she quickly skipped over to Haruka and wrapped her arms around him tight as she could. "Thank you, Haruka. Thank you so much. I promise I'm going to change when we get out of here."
Haruka was taken aback at the sudden hug, then his shoulders relaxed, and he gave her a pat on her back. "It's a promise, then. Just remember that you have us supporting you from behind you." He turned his head and glanced towards the balcony. "Though, I'd recommend us to go by air - it's quicker, because we are running short of time."
