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Resurrection; The Closing of a Saga
Topic Started: Jan 14 2008, 05:23 AM (4,618 Views)
~The Boss~
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Native Son

Grace woke up at about eight thirty in the morning, or at least it was eight thirty according to her watch. It was still set on the local Martian time, so that's what she was going by until she adjusted to whatever time the ship was going by.

The first thing she noticed when she awoke was that her arm was throbbing where Aiko had slashed her. She went straight to the med bay and used the inoculater on her arm in an attempt to kill the pain. Then she grabbed a strawberry-granola ration bar and had breakfast.

She started working out at about nine. Having already emptied out her duffel bag, she borrowed some old rags and sheets that the crew weren't using, and with proper strapping she had herself a serviceable punching bag. A rail underneath a catwalk on Narssek's ship was perfect for chin-ups. Unfortunately, there was a shortage of space in which to run. And forget about swimming, her preferred method of keeping in shape. One of many reasons why Grace hated ships.

By ten o'clock, she had finished her workout and and experienced the Pirate version of a shower, which was little more than a quick, county jail-style hose down. In other words, something that she was intimately familiar with. Hey, at least I'm clean, she thought.

While the shot had helped some, whatever was going on in there was getting worse. Her forearm muscles were tightening up, and some particularly nasty-looking bruises were developing very quickly. Against her better judgment, Grace swallowed a few painkillers.

At twelve forty-five, about the time that Grace was trying out the wrist mounted plasma blade that Cottonmouth had given her, she started experiencing spasms. Just little twitches at first. Then her arm involuntarily slammed into the hull, breaking her hand. She bandaged it up, grabbed some ice compresses, and downed some more pills, hoping that she would find that right balance of losing complete feeling in her now-shattered hand and infected arm, and not killing herself.

By the time two 'o clock came around, she was starting to feel pretty woozy. That was the painkillers working on her. Simultaneously, nausea had set in. That wasn't the painkillers. The infection was still concentrated in her arm, but it was taking a physical toll on her body. And despite everything she had done to try and soothe it, her arm felt like it was on fire.

She staggered down the hall, trying to make it back to her room, but the ship had started spinning around her. The doctor's warnings on the label of the painkillers she had taken said they would make her sleepy, but dizziness was not supposed to be part of the equation. No matter how much you took.

At two fifteen, she was unconscious in the bay of Narssek's freighter.
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+transcon+
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Metroid Specialist

Zik, the Ki-Hunter, was in the cargo hold of the Freighter rummaging through the goodies Jimmy Vega had provided for the newly formed resistance movement. Narssek was overseeing the cataloging of the materials as Lieutenant Yuur repeated in translation what Zik reported.

"Two small crates of fragmentation concussion devices, check," Yuur nodded to Narssek. "Four cases of short range projectile dispersal rifles, check."

"Those are called grenades and shotguns, Lieutenant," the Admiral corrected with a smirk. "I appreciate your attention to detail, however."

"Understood, Sir," he chirped quickly as he understood the gist of his superior's meaning. Zik continued as Yuur picked up the pace. "One rack of... micro-missile launchers with four reloads. One forcefield plane projector, er, one auto-wall. Two cases of Tequila? Zik! Are you reading that right?"

"Did someone say Terran Alcohol?" As if the tequila was a beacon, A'xun and Rin'tal entered the hangar looking like greedy rats.

"How did you know?" It was the Admiral's turn to be amazed.

"We were bored and were passing by. Anyone seen Aiko?" A'xun looked around the room, then spotted the Tequila.

"....and one stowaway," Yuur finished, then growled. "Stowaway? Where?" Zik found Grace's form laying on the floor in a rather unladylike position.

"Oh! Vega's female! She's not a stowaway."

"Quiet! All of you!" Narssek already had his built-in med scanner activated as he sought out what the cause of her being there really was. "Acetaminophen, Naproxen Sodium, and Acetylsalicylic Acid is present at extremely high levels. No doubt from the severe skeletal damage to her limb." The Admiral fell silent for a moment as his face suddenly was awash with shock.

"Zik, take this female to the infirmary immediately. Yuur, find out if Captain Cottonmouth's crew has anything that can stabilize this human." Zik and Yuur immediately hopped to work doing exactly as they were ordered. "A'xun, prepare the ship for atmosphere entry. We're on a hunt, remember?"

"Aye, Sir!"

"Rin'Tal, did you have that status report I asked for?" By now, Narssek was beginning to growl. The young one, Rin'Tal, suddenly realizing he's by himself with an experienced veteran who was getting angrier by the second, began to quake in his armor.

"Yessir!!! A'xun rigged the sensors expecting a cloaked vessel. With all the sudden appearance of our ships here, it left. An ion trail was evidence of that. We were sure that his ship got suspicious of a fleet suddenly showing up without orders from the Council.

"Even the Independents are sworn away from this place!"

"Its only one mother ship with no supporting fleet. Ridley would know he'd be spotted with these many eyes in the area. He must be still on the surface. It's a diversionary tactic."

"So, what now?"

"We proceed as planned."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"I hope you realize where you are," Athena's voice calmly flowed over the atmosphere where Spurious and Adam were having a moment. A simple sound of a disembodied voice sent a waft of heat through their proverbial air. "Your group has arrived. It would be nice if you two could attend."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, while Athena's off prodding your missing persons," Colliope cheered as she greeted her guests, "Let me get started! As they should be back within the second... or so she says." The six-feet-two green and yellow female stood with prideful posture and spread her clawed limbs wide and welcoming. Her nucleus pulsed in mimicry of her enthusiasm. Yet, despite all the bravado, the sheer sinister weight of her power could be felt by all.

"Anyways, I'm Colliope, and this would be my sister, Athena." Athena stood just as proud, but with an expression that could describe her persona as 'logical'. An equal threshold of power could be felt from this creature. They could be identical twins (or triplets in the case of their other sister), except that Athena was varying tones of grays with reds.

"So, we were bickering as usual as to who this world belonged to. Then, one cycle, a dragon appeared. It was big!" Her hand gestures and vocals denoted innocence, but with joy of telling a story. They hadn't had any visitors in a long while, thus she was happy to share her new experiences. "It asked,

"'What have we here? Three you may be, but what do my eyes see? Dichotomy.' I didn't know what any of that meant, so I asked 'what do you want?' And, he said:

"'I offer peace, that which you three seek.' This dragon knew we wanted peace amongst ourselves. I love my dearest sisters! But, this is my world. Why can't I have it? Then, he said:

"'I have but room for one.'" She jumped down from her dias and passed each of those that were present. "Tisiphone, of all of us Three, said:

"'Get me to freedom. Get me to blood! There is not enough to feast here for all three! Take me!' Then, the dragon said:

"'But, for a price, my dear.'" When she reached Omega-Alpha, she reached up and gripped his shoulders and shook him carefully in fright. "Would our sister dare help that which hurt us?"

"Big red thing with yellow eyes is bad!" he scolded. "You know this! He hurt me. He hurt Mother! Why did you let her go with him?"

"Because he is a smooth talker," came a chirping voice from the back of the chamber. "I can be a smooth talker, but not as good as he can be. Forgive me for intruding, but I believe we all have a mutual enemy, here. Yes?"

Admiral Narrsek and Lieutenant Yuur stepped down from the entrance area to a safe distance away. He knew he was taking a chance, but he also figured that he had nothing to lose at this point. It was an 'all or nothing' gamble. When he heard the voices from topside echoing out, the plan formulated in his mind on the spot.

"But, you froze me!" Omega turned and snarled at Dinner. But, Dinner, aka Narssek, was taken aback. He didn't recognize the seven-feet-plus tall creature standing there in the midst of his compatriots.

'I hate minor miscalculations,' the Admiral thought to himself in dismay.
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+Aiko+
Roffel House!

(OOC: Whoot! You posted on a day where I have the computer for more than 5 minutes! This was the most fun I've had writing in a while. Enjoy!)

The engine room was quiet and still within the orbiting freighter. Once a stable orbit had been attained, there was no need to keep the engines hot, and every reason not to. Aiko’s memories knew Ridley on an near-intimate level, even if she herself had never met the creature. The space dragon was crafty, and she had been watching the sensors when Rin’tal made his observations. She approved of Narssek’s decision to let the decoy go, although she wasn’t sure if Ridley could hide on the planet with two very upset metroid queens looking for him.

Narssek hadn’t talked with her since they left Mars, but that was fine. They had a mutual understanding. She needed her space, and if he treated her as anything more than human then the others would’ve expected something unusual.

Aiko draped her right foot over the edge of her hammock and pushed against the wall. The engine room was hers, and wisely nobody had challenged her for it. The hammock swayed between two huge motor mounts, and Aiko once again turned her attention from the holographic sensor display to the object in her lap.

How long had it been since she’d had to change? She’d been comfortably inert for a long time, even though her host had suffered occasionally for it. In all honesty, she reminded herself, she had never changed, although she had the recollections of those who did. Her memories-that-were-not-hers tasted strange, but at least they were easily understood at first glance. Completely unlike the stolen memories of other species.

She sighed, and her black fingers tightened around the block of dry ice. Her host couldn’t survive this for long, and already the dead and dying Homo sapiens cells were crying out to her, begging for help. The sensation brought a wry, humorless smile to her lips. It was so strange. She always thought that she had adapted to her body, but in reality it had adapted as much to her as she to it. After being replicated for so long by Extocorpalis mentilatrosis, the human cells had almost developed a rudimentary self-awareness of their own. They intelligence was no greater than the programmed response of a moth toward light as they called for her, but it was still a reaction that should not have occurred at all.

She couldn’t help them this time, at least not until she was done. There were metroids on that planet, and one queen was renegade. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—take chances like that, and there was only one way she could protect herself. Not completely, but at least she could guarantee a world of hurt if any of the metroids decided that she was their next meal.

Green slime reached out to the dry ice…. and turned to blue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She made a pact with the devil.

Samus felt her blood run cold as that single thought seeped into her mind. Desperate though Tisiphone must’ve been, surely the queen wouldn’t turn against all she held dear to have that which would’ve been given her in time?

But, Samus bitterly reminded herself, metroids have no sense of time.

A day, two months, or two minutes meant literally nothing to metroids. Their ability to perceive time was even less than that of humans, but at least humans knew time had passed. Of the Three, only Athena seemed to have a minor comprehension of time, and Samus figured it was probably due to her immersion in computer systems that constantly told her what time it was.

Her horror was overcome instantly as another voice drifted into the conversation. The new presence identified himself, and Samus slipped into icy hatred. There was a very uncomfortable silence after Omega’s furious outburst, one which Samus interrupted with a voice as smooth as molten lead.

“Mutual enemy?” Samus said with the barest hint of razor-edge skepticism. “Why the sudden change of heart, pirate?”
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~Twilight~
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Just... Kind of out there...
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Twilight quietly tagged along the group, not really wanting to disturb their focus or thoughts, judging by these caverns they could be dangerous, or atleast there could be something dangerous in them. Even before they reached the chamber in which the Metroids were in, Twilight could feel an impressive precense from ahead of them, but he could not judge its strength or how many from this far away, however he could feel it was similiar to Omega's.

Once they reached the chamber the first thing that caught Twilights "eyes" attention was the large humanoid Metroid which was standing on a form of platform, or dias. Right then he did not even have to guess where the source of this precense came from, and even as they moved closer he could feel it almost pushing down on him, it was almost like the time he had stood before one of the Temple Guardians, except then he had been a mere Warrior, he had grown stronger since then.

Not knowing what these Metroids was capable off, or how likely they were to attack, Twilight opted for keeping in the back as he had during this whole trip, staying quiet but keeping his senses fully active. He listened to the tale of... Colliope, glancing occasionally at Samus and Omega to see if he could read their reactions to these events, that way he could probably figure out just how significant this was.

From Omegas reaction and words, he could tell he had atleast some relationship with this Ridley, but he had never seen the space dragon himself and only heard very little of him, most of it what he had read from the logs Adam sent him. However there was no time for thinking deeply into it, as another voice sounded out from behind them, and in the blink of an eye he had swung around, his rifle aimed towards the space pirate at the entrance, however he would not shoot unless it proved hostile. But judging from Samus tone, this could very well end up in a fight.

OOC: Just to clarify, the reason their precense has such an effect on Twilight is because of his unique senses as an Ing.
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+CEMP+
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Clockwork Master

Much like Twilight, Jenosa had begun to sense energy signatures that were similar to Omega's but, life two different people, they held their own distinction. At first, she was only able to feel them as a tingling sensation around her body, and was barely able to distinguish them, or it at the time, from Omega's body signature. They almost seemed to blend right in with one another.

However, as they got closer, the strength of the signature obviously got stronger, and along with that, their distinction. It was then she was able to clearly tell all three signatures apart from one another. In moments, only a couple of meters away, she was able to pinpoint both Metroid's exact location (And found that she was able to feel this more clearly by focusing on them). It was like she could shoot while blind and still hit them, not that she really wanted to at all.

It was through her amazement at this supernatural ability that, deep down, grisly reminded her that she no longer carried traits that were human. In many ways, she liked being just a regular human being, as it simply made her feel who she was. Being super fast or super strong didn't mean anything to her at all, and she honestly liked the way she was, as it lent a challenge to her spirit. Having these 'weakness' means her life would never be dull.

Now, she wasn't so sure, but then she was reminded of those words that strange girl on mars told her: "What is, is far more flexible than most people realize. Things change, not for better, not for worse, but for change itself. Without change, there is atrophy. Everyone changes, no matter how much someone wants to stay the same."

And a life that never changes would get really dull really fast, Jenosa thought. Maybe - no, not maybe, just the way I feel about myself is another bumpy part of the road that I've taken. Isn't this sudden unpredictability and surprises one of the reasons that I've sighed up for a career? If I haven't, then I guess there really isn't a light at the end of the tunnel - or an energy source.

As Jenosa stepped out of the tunnel and into the chamber with the others, feelings the waves of energy surround her body as she had just stepped out of cold air into warm, she knew she had all the reason and motivation to be here. What she didn't know was how all this was going to turn out, and how this might change her even more.

She smirked inwardly despite the tense situation ahead of her, knowing that this was who she was, and that she was still human.

And that human spirit of her was probably kicking even now, for while the metroids were talking to them, she did not find the "sinister power" emitted from them frightening at all. On the contrary, there was something...familiar that these energy signatures, including Omega's, that had been, and was now nagging her. What this familiarity was, she couldn't quite put finger on, but she felt like she could put on this little "song and dance" to, or with it.

It also seemed to make her feel more comfortable in being alongside her other companions in the ‘front’ of the crowd, unlike TT.

In any case, her attention was mostly focused on the speech of Colliope. Sounded to her that they didn’t know the idea of ‘sharing;’ she was also intrigued by the way this ‘Ridley’ talked, as it definitely belied his appearance that she saw on the file that Adam gave him. It also gave her a small idea of how he acted, at least on certain occasions; this fact could prove useful later on for her.

It was probably the amount of ‘energy,’ or whatever it could be called, that was being given off by the two that probably had masked the pirate’s. As soon as he heard him, her entire body tensed knowing that this could get really nasty. Unlike some of the people here, Jenosa didn’t have any bad experiences with pirates; however, she knew that they weren’t to be ignored when in your sight.

And with the way Samus talked, she was all the more tense.


While all of this happened, somewhere in the electronic bowls of Jenosa bio-suit, it watched curiously. It watched through the vision that it had no control of, as looking through a security camera that had a mind of its own. It also soon discovered other means of gaining information about its surroundings and the strange creatures it saw; using these methods made it all the more curious and planted many more questions in its mind.

Anything to solve the ambiguous and whereabouts of this mysterious…state or prison.
"I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death."
— Monty Oum
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~The Boss~
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Native Son

(OOC: Trans... "Acetaminophen, Naproxen Sodium, and Acetylsalicylic Acid"? More like Vicodin, Demerol, and Oxycontin ;) )

That it turned out to be an X infection came as a surprise to Grifter. What he now realized should not have surprised him was that Aiko was X herself.

Logically, that certainly seemed to be the case. As the individual who had wounded Grace, that immediately traced the X infection back to her. All of the talk he had heard about Admiral Narssek's mechanic being a parasite despite her Terran appearance jived nicely with this new information. As did the fact that she was identified in said talk by two different names; some called her "Aiko," but most called her "Julia Evansworth," or even "Julia Aiko." Whatever her name was, it did not take a great deal of detective work to figure it out.

A more challenging task for the pirate was containing the infection. Grifter wasn't a medic by trade, although most of the crew's medical tasks often fell to him. His many years of battlefield experience made him something of an expert on combat wounds. And naturally, many combat wounds came with infections. Some typical, some - like the one in Grace's arm - not so much.

The one thing that he had going for him was that it appeared to be a weak infection, perhaps nothing more than an unintended side effect of the wound. Just the fact that she was still breathing told him that. And from the looks of the ugly bruising on her arm, it so far didn't look like it had progressed beyond her elbow. The med scan had confirmed as much. Weak as it was, a simple tourniquet could take care of that, at least temporarily.

If she wanted to live through tomorrow night though, she'd need more extensive treatment.

While the crew kept their infirmary stocked, as chances were high they might encounter such situations as this, the one thing they didn't have was the one thing that could have easily saved her life: a vaccine made from metroid DNA. That was what had saved the Huntress - one of the few known survivors of an X infection. So while the anti-viral drugs they already had could keep the infection contained and - most importantly - keep her alive, they wouldn't cure the infection.

For that, Grifter needed to seek alternative measures.

.............................

Aiko wasn't paying any attention when Grifter walked into the engine room with Grace lying in his arms. The parasitic girl was sitting in her hammock, absorbed in some trinket.

"You there," the pirate grumbled, getting her attention.

Grifter laid Grace down on the ground in front of Aiko's hammock, a bandanna wrapped tightly around her sickly-looking arm, just above her elbow.

"This is your doing, I am sure," he said. "Now how are you going to fix this?"
Edited by The Boss, Jul 15 2008, 06:54 PM.
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+Aiko+
Roffel House!

(OOC: Joint post between me and Jefe.)

Hands shook as the last of the dry ice sublimed into harmless vapor. Fingers charred black with frostbite were dead and still while an internal engineer worked drunkenly to fix them.

That was easier than she expected, Aiko mused, although she felt odd. If she were human, what she was feeling could’ve been described as listless, off balance, even delirious. She laid in the hammock and stared at the ceiling, feeling strangely apathetic. She absently tested the dexterity of her healing fingers with a small multi-tool from her belt, twirling the object until it fell onto her lap, and then she’d repeat the exercise.

The door didn’t slide open as much as grind on the rollers, for the old freighter had manually operated doors, not the fancy automatic ones of newer, more expensive ships. Aiko was so out-of-sorts that she didn’t notice the violation of privacy…and orders… until the interloper spoke.

Aiko’s head lolled from side to side until it finally rolled off one side of the hammock to regard the unfamiliar pirate upside-down. Her eyes were glazed and dreamy, pupil’s dilated from her body’s shock at losing digits.

“Fix?” she slurred, tasting the odd language. “But I fixed everything before I boarded,” she continued, totally oblivious to the context of his question, nor noticing the limp body he carried in his arms.

"The girl you wounded," Grifter replied, laying Grace down on the ground in front of Aiko's hammock. "This girl, the one you infected."

Aiko scowled at the sight of her enemy, snorted, then looked at the ceiling again. "She deserved it," Aiko said flatly. It seemed to take an additional moment for Grifter's second comment to finally be processed, and Aiko laughed. "I didn't infect her. And you're not supposed to know that I can do that." Aiko's gaze turned dangerously sharp, if still a bit clouded.

"Our medical equiment is bare bones, but it can identify an infection. And she had already told me who it was that slashed her arm. Simple logic, young lady. You could not be a mere carrier of the X virus. You would not have survived this long in your current form. You yourself must be an X-based parasite."

Aiko's fingers twitched, but did nothing more. Her bloodlust rose, but she was tired. The pirate had to die. He knew too much, and too much was at stake here. If the pirates learned of her existence too early, everything could end in disaster. Samus would certainly hunt her if the pirates recognized her as the bioterrorism weapon she was, especially after learning that she was assisting the pirates in the first place. Aiko's position was extremely precarious, and Grifter was extremely fortunate that Aiko was so exhausted that there was no way she could hurt him right now.

The hate showed in her eyes though. There was little doubt that Grifter's days were numbered. Aiko's mind worked slowly, and she was silent for too long to dismiss his claims. Her silence was condemning. "What do you care? She's human and here only so that your human counterparts on Mars have a way to babysit you. So what if she dies?" she said, although there was something else in the look she sent him. She was skeptical, but most of all, she was surprised at his accusation.

"If she dies, we are down one crew member. We are that much weaker."

"If she survives, we are not only that much stronger, but she is now in your debt."

Grifter spoke very matter-of-factly. He was surprised that Aiko did not seem to understand the plain practicality of keeping Grace alive. Then again, given that his theory had apparently been true, she was a primal creature and therefore thought in very primal terms. She was less concerned with taking advantage of a situation than with personal gratification.

Grifter's words definitely piqued Aiko's interest, and reminded Aiko again why she was beginning to like dealing with pirates. Where humans were devious, deceiptful, and indirect, pirates were logical, goal-oriented, and used to bargaining to get what they wanted.

Aiko found the idea of Grace being in her debt particularly delicious, but the problem would be getting Grace to realize just how easily Aiko could have killed her. Aiko was quite aware how lucky Grace, and indeed, Grifter, had been. Only one or two of her cells could've infected Grace at the time of the injury, a number so low that Aiko's collective intelligence had no awareness of them missing. The cells multiplying within Grace lacked any intelligence and were only following their innate programming; eat, grow, and conquer. They were close to the density required to finally make the attack on Grace's brain, but Grifter's quick thinking had slowed growth enough to delay that.

Even now, Aiko could smell what was happening, and her own experience filled in the missing details.
.
"She is not to know what I am, only that I am the one responsible for her illness and recovery," Aiko commanded, glaring at Grifter.

"I doubt that information would mean very much to her," the pirate said. "But I shall adhere to your wishes, so long as she makes said recovery.

"If not, then there will be no one around to reveal your secret to, would there?" he added for reassurance.

Aiko's narrowed eyes told Grifter just how little reassurance his comment was. With a bone-weary groan, Aiko sat up in the hammock and then slid out. She stumbled until she reached the wall, and she stubbed one of her healing fingers into the metal. Snarling at the offending object, Aiko wrenched her hand away and examined the injury. The tip of her blackened finger had actually broken off, and blood oozed briefly from the wound. She seemed to consider it a moment, then shrugged. At least now she had an open wound to work with. Diffusing through pores in the skin was always agonizingly slow, and Aiko was feeling lazy.

Bending clumsily down, Aiko carelessly grabbed Grace's severely mangled arm. Taking out her knife, Aiko made a shallow incision by the elbow, and stuck her bleeding finger in. Nothing seemed to happen to Grifter, but a rather brief and confused encounter occurred within Grace's arm as Aiko-X encountered primitive-X. Within 5 seconds the absorption was complete, and Aiko slunk back into her hammock, face down in a pillow.

"I did my part, now go," she grumbled.

Grifter nodded, and picked up Grace's prone form and left the engine room. He would bandage the new wound and put her to bed, and allow the recovery process to take its course.
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~beflexor~
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I just _____ in the _____.

“Who?”

Squirt’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the well-endowed Adam. Athena? The GI closed her eyes for a moment, playing back all that had happened in the past hour. She halted when she reached the conversation. If she’d had blood, it would have run cold, instead, her feelings were instead represented by small bugs dropping out of her hair, dead. Few of the many little insects that she used to infect various computer systems.

“O-of course. I was just messing with you. It’s been awhile and I’ve been feeling cooped up with no other GIs, ya know? Sorry.” With a flick of her wrist, the manipulations to Adam’s avatar disappeared, the hair staying just a fraction longer. She had to admit, he looked like some kind of awesome rock star with long hair.

Why didn’t she catch Athena’s message? It was quick, but not to a degree that even a normal computer could miss it. Thanks (in a sarcastic manner) to the Beflexor, Squirt now had a physical body, but had it made other changes too? She wasn’t human, she didn’t cry, bleed, eat, and gave off a lower level of heat that most sensors wouldn’t recognize as a living body. She made a quick mental check and found the usual.

She had probably just been distracted at the time.

At least her musings still went at lightning speed. When she turned her attention back into the little room she and Adam were in, she shrugged. “Well, I think we’d best get back to, uh, the others, see you later.” She pointed upward, indicating Athena’s voice. “See? Right there, no better invitation than that!”

Squirt popped out of the virtual world, leaving behind her little dead bugs.

~

Ben gripped Lorrilal’s shoulders tightly when the. As much as she thought about saying something, the stench of his fear was apparent even to her weak nose and through his suit. This was then doubled as others came.

“Nh” the Fae grunted, feeling her fibrous body protest against her guardian’s grip.

“Sorry” Ben whispered, letting his hands fall to his sides. Then, he spoke so quietly the girl had to strain to hear him. “Everything here is screaming ‘trap’ to me.”

Before Lorrilal could even open her mouth to give the human a single word of comfort, one of the outer pockets on Ben’s suit ripped open and out tumbled Squirt, her face skidded against the ground and she spat both curses and a mouthful of dirt.

Most of the time, when the GI moved from one area to the other, the Beflexor stayed more or less in the same spot where she’d left it. Of course, there was the occasional need to move it. This was often a traumatic experience to both her and the current wielder. She stood up to redirect her indignation toward Ben and froze.

One other unfortunate thing about only being in one place at one time was that all kinds of crap happened while she was gone. People came and went, but it really sucked when the ugly ones stayed. They usually had guns and ill intent.

The GI would have to rip her captain a new one later. For now, all she could to is make herself as uninteresting as possible, especially considering, like Lorrilal, she wasn’t wearing a suit despite the fact that she looked very much human.

Breathing was another thing on the list that separated her from the hungry, sleepy, fleshy world of real.
Someone made the mistake of letting me publish a book, check Dusted Here!
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~The Boss~
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Native Son

When Grace finally woke up, she didn't know how long it had been. Grifter had been telling her how long she was out, but she couldn't quite focus on what she was saying yet, an effect of the toll taken on her body by both the infection and the large amount of pharmaceuticals she had taken in an attempt to ease said infection. In fact, about the only message she had gotten out of that explanation of his was "We've arrived."

He tried to explain what had happened to her, keeping in mind his assurance to Aiko that he would not reveal the full details. Grace, however, could not follow. The word parasite was about all that grabbed her attention, and she just kept nodding her head as if she understood completely. And in a way, it did make perfect sense to her. The parasite got her with whatever it is the parasite does, only to cure her later on.

And that was all she needed to know anyway.

...........................

When Grace regained enough of her senses, she mustered up the energy to take a second trip down to the engine room. Aiko was lying on her hammock, barely acknowledging her as the door creaked open. The girl muttered something under her breath that Grace couldn't make out, but she didn't make any movements.

"Hey there," Grace said, pulling up a toolbox to use as a seat. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it did the job. "So they tell me you were the one who fixed me up. Now I don't really know what kind of weirdass xeno you are, and I really could care less, to tell you the truth. But I just want you to know that I really do appreciate you helping me out there. Even though you were kinda the one who made me all sick in the first place."

Aiko made no response. In fact, she looked annoyed that she was being disturbed at all.

"Look, I'm really sorry for the way things went down between us. But that sort of thing... that's just what I do. I mean, look at me. I'm just a human. I don't have any high-tech powered armor or implants or anything like that. So sometimes I gotta go to extremes to get my point across.

"What I did - threatening to blow us both up - that was mild. I've done things in my time that might turn even your stomach. But in my line of work, you gotta be willing to do that. You gotta have the strength to do things like cut off the girlfriend's fingers until the guy tells you what you wanna know - no matter how sweet and innocent the girl is."

Grace winced a bit at the memory. She was dangerous, unstable, and walked the edge of being a genuine, honest-to-god sociopath, but that didn't mean that a bleeding, screaming nineteen-year-old didn't wrench at her heart. Especially when she'd put the knife to that second finger. She did still have some humanity in her... which was more than she could say about a lot of people.

"Henry always used to tell me," Grace continued, "that the most powerful man on the battlefield wasn't the one with the best weapons or the most resources. It's the guy who has the will to cross the lines that the others won't. That's why I work the way I do... cause I ain't always got the best gear. Matter of fact, I rarely do, so I have to get creative. I've gotta set people on fire, I've gotta shoot the pilot and seal the cockpit so no one can fly the ship, and sometimes I gotta play with my own life on the line. Sweetie, that's just how it works. You understand that, don't you?"

...........................

“Mutual enemy? Why the sudden change of heart, pirate?”

Cottonmouth silently watched the exchange between Narssek and Samus, hanging back under cloak with Ravage and Scragg. The three of them had come along as backup while Grifter stayed behind to take care of Grace. Cottonmouth had wanted to make sure that things went down smoothly with whatever Narssek had in mind. The Admiral had insisted that Ax'un and Rin'tal would be perfectly adequate backup, but Cottonmouth disagreed. He didn't hold their ability or competence in particularly high regard.

So the three pirates remained cloaked. They were here to keep an eye on things, not interfere. They would make no moves unless someone else did first.
Edited by The Boss, Jul 31 2008, 12:45 AM.
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