Welcome to Gaia! ::

Richard squinted against the flames, expecting to see a burnt body when they cleared. He knew that wasn't going to be case, SOUL didn't usually crisp their operatives, even if they were zombies, but until he saw otherwise, it was the natural thing to expect. So it was with some surprise that Richard came to behold Uso, in all his glory, unscathed.

Mostly unfazed by Uso's sudden nudity, Richard watched with interest as he demonstrated his ability to throw the flames he had consumed back into the environment.

"I like this one," Rachel mused quietly upon Uso's requests, more specifically his mention of a Tesla coil which was her next intention once he expended the fire. With a flick of a few switches, targets dropped from panels in the blast chamber's walls and ceiling - some of which swung on chains or rotated on geared arms to provide the challenge of movement.

Then she told the boy to do what he could with those and purge the last of the fire so not to contaminate the next experiment. At mention of it she flicked another switch to raise a pair of coils on either end of the room where they would, once activated, arc directly over the boy.

"Don't damage the equipment," she warned lightly then went back to excitedly watching the show.

Rachel grinned appreciatively at the boy's display, all of it, then almost giggled as she pulled the lever to activate the coils and send a massive shock through his system. She was enjoying herself to a degree the others in the room may have found a touch disturbing. But then it wasn't every day she got to do this sort of thing so she took full advantage and ran every test she could come up with. By the end of it she'd hit the boy with fire, electricity, radiation, corrosive (acid), magnetic, and concussive forces - just to see what happened. She always started with small doses to be sure he could handle it then moved up to large ones to see what he could do with it. By the end Uso was likely exhausted but Rachel had a stack of raw data to show for it so she was still quite excited.

Richard waited patiently until what appeared to be the end of Rachel's experiments with Uso, they were at least interesting to watch. He approached Rachel. "I assume you've read my file." He stated, then continued without waiting for a response. "In which case you should know about the visions of white phantoms and bloodstains I've been having and how SOUL likes to keep track of that. So, I'm here to let you know that there were bloodstains during the battle with the Black Phantoms. No white phantoms, though, which is a little odd."

Richard thought for a moment, he wasn't sure how they were different from any other bloodstain other than they were spontaneous and seeped from the ground. "Well... it was the color of blood... it appeared to be seeping from the ground... and they were stains. They began forming shortly after the people on the street were transformed."

Uso was given a fresh form-fitting tee and athletic shorts, both black. They must have raided his wardrobe because they looked and felt awfully familiar. While his first thought was that it was strange, the rest of his brain immediately crushed it. It wasn't terribly strange for an organization devised for the sole (hehe) purposes of slaying demons to ensure its members found some form of solace in the midst of their torn lives.

At least, that was the impression Uso had thus far: that he would eventually become some super-addict to the act of killing. While it had become less difficult with each kill, and the sensation itself was overwhelming, he didn't find himself at war with a homicidal craving. Perhaps it was his lack of an addictive personality; perhaps it was his own personal motives for finding conflict; his hypothesis suggested some mixture of the two.

His mind was working at top speed as it came down from the workout high, so this was as good a topic as any to contemplate. After short-lived consideration, however, the brawler determined the crux of the matter was his own personal desire for self-discovery. Jake had become a zealot or a monk, hellbent on driving out any part of himself that would not aid in his task, and taking on many new aspects as he fought his way to enlightenment. There was no doubt in the boy's mind that he could do just that- that some day everything would fall into place as his opponent would fall to the floor. It was a puzzle of 'hows' and 'whys' that when together would illuminate his past and serve as a guiding beacon into his future.

For now, though, he would beat bloody and senseless any being that chose to stand between him and the answer- be they demon, human, or other.

Richard glanced over Rachel's shoulder and spotted the white phantom. "Oh, I guess they were just a little late to the party." He grumbled and pointed towards the shape in the testing area, temporarily forgetting that it was just a vision. "Oh, right, sorry. Anyway, I'm watching one now."

Richard raised an eyebrow and stared at Rachel. "What's the point of that? You don't... see it, do you?" Richard let out a brief chuckle. If she did actually see it, that meant that Richard was either less mental than he thought or that Rachel was going crazy, too. He wondered if Uso could see it. If they could all see it, maybe they could interact with it somehow. That would certainly be interesting.