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 Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:52 pm
The cannon focus the power into the small rod in the center of the barrel. The culminated electric energy bursts out of it in a beam reminiscent of the blast from the Death Star. It's bright, radiant light flashes brightly enough to make itself visible to the others. The deafening crack comes almost a second after the flash, a flash which obliterates the F-drone in a brilliant display of molten metal and circuitry. The ceiling holding it implodes from the impact. Because the drones are connected in a network, they all twitch and screech. Almost in unison they fall from the ceiling with a loud clang.
The feedback blows right into Charles Ray hidden chamber. He throws his hand up to guard his face from the countless explosions going off over his head. The glass bursts forth with the flames and falls in an almost musical shatter on the ground.
The black cloud of F-particles begin to dissipate through the hole in the ceiling, finally revealing the Foundry. Around them is an almost limitless machine shop, constantly working and grinding on creating a variety of mechanical death machines. The pace they are working at is visibly straining, working so quickly that the products are almost a blur. In the center of the enormous structure is a steel dome with cables comes out of it. There is a single door, with the words "Foreman" riveted into it.
The Xenomorphs that were only moments ago about to tear Tansy and Annie apart melt into puddle of black ooze. The frost giant attacking Garret shatters into a beautiful display of snow. A-0079 takes his heavy long strides into the foundry and points toward the door marked Foreman without saying a word.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:29 pm
Annie took a deep breath, relieved to be out of the nightmarish world that Charles Ray had created for him. She was shaking in relief, anger, hatred, and a little bit of fear, as she realized that the only thing that had kept her going for what seemed to be an eternity was pure adrenaline.
Smiling, Annie walked to the door labeled Foreman, her hand lingering on the handle but not turning it, "Nice of him to give us a sign where he is... 'foreman' sounds like what you might call Mr. Ray."
She raised her hand and knocked on the door, "Mr. Ray, are you in there? Why don't you come out? I'm sure you know by now, that we can- and will force our way to you if we have to."
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:55 pm
Tansy had letout a cry when the blood devils had jumpedon her, but tere wasn't much she could do. She tried to bat them away with a single arm until Annie saved her. She smiled at the woman as she reached out with her free arm and held onto her tightly to help her stand.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:01 am
Ako stood slack-jawed for a moment, staring at the hole he'd made in the ceiling. When he pulled himself together and saw the robot pointing out the foreman door, ready to charge and fire another shot if he had to. Surely Charles had seen that, and was waiting on the other side of that door to practically throw himself at their feet and ask for forgiveness.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:56 am
((Per Sky's request, I will be puppet for him until he returns from winter break.))
Garret presses his hand over the hole in his shoulder. He winces and cries out as he forcibly freezes the flesh there. He looks up at the door and walks past the others with a determined scowl on his face. This man was going to pay for what he had did to them. Oh yes, he was going to pay in spades. He gently places a hand on Annie's shoulder to move her aside. He takes a deep breath and places his hands on the door. Slowly at first, frost begins to creep onto the door. Watching the speed this was going at was doing nothing more than frustrate him. With a grunt he puts everything he has into it and flash freezes the door. He stands back and looks to the robot, "Hey, would you mind punching that block of ice for us so we can get in?"
A-0079 nods and takes his heavy steps over to the door. To everyone's surprise, rather than bash the door into the done he digs his fingers into one side and swings it outward from it.
Inside of the dome are countless pieces of electronic equipment. Monitors, ECG's, respirators, rods holding bags of IV fluid. they are all connected to the person secured to the table in the middle of the room. Laying horizontally is a young girl, secured to an operating table by her wrists, ankles, and hips. She is wearing a hospital gown and nothing else. Thankfully, rather than having her eyes removed, she merely has a set of goggles strapped to her head over her eyes. In both arms are numerous IV connections. Her fingers twitch gently every so often, almost as if her body is begging to do something with the information it is being fed, but not being allowed to. Her mouth lays slightly ajar, dried up spittle streaking down one side. Her head has been shaved bald, with several leads attached to her head, presumably to decipher her thoughts into something tangible.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 3:29 pm
Annie paled at the sight of the girl, she stepped forward holding herself up by the door frame. She felt sick. "He's a monster... I swear on my mother's grave I am going to hurt that man... permanently... and so bad he wished he was dead. Death isn't good enough for someone like him."
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 3:39 pm
Tansy vision blurred. She blinked rapidly as she tried to see what was right in front of her. She could see Annie's face, but she only knew it was Annie from her voice. And even that was starting to sound odd. As Annie moved forwards, Tansy tried to move with her, but her knees felt weak, and she slipped, falling onto her stomach. She laid on the floor, and sighed softly. Letting her eyes shut. She wondering if dying a second time would be much like the first. What was it like when you already knew what would happen. When most already consider you an angel. Did angels even die? They had too. She tried to think back. Had this what it had been like the first time? She hadn't even known that she was dead until she woke up and they had told her. She heard the others talking as she began to feel cold. She tried to shiver, but even that took to much strength. "Guys...." Her voice was breathy and only barely above a whisper.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 3:49 pm
Annie turned seeing Tansy drop and swore under her breath, as she sat herself down by Tansy's side- almost collapsing. She turned her head to Ako and Garret, "We have to find her medical treatment and quick..."
What Annie knew about treating battle wounds, she had only learned from the many military and war movies she used to watch with her father. Stripping off her coat, she wrapped Tansy in it the best she could, and she hugged the girl-woman-angel... Tansy... now was not the time to be wondering about what she was, and for that matter what she and the others were either.
She was furious and baffled though, how could one man be giving four- no... five powerful 'mutants' (if you wanted to go with X-Men terms... 'meta-humans' that was the term Charles Ray had used) so many problems. There was no way one man could be that much stronger if you weighed the differences between the two. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her mind was racing, and she couldn't shut it down. She had been on the brink of hysterics for hours now.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 4:16 pm
A-0079 steps to the poor child on the table and gingerly runs his large fingers across her cheek. The girl on the bench twitches her head slightly. Almost immediately the machines in the dome come to life. Three androids that look strikingly similar to C3-PO climb out of small indentations in the walls that are just large enough for them. One of them starts repeating the phrase "Emergency" over and over again. The walk awkwardly to Tansy and Annie. One of them requests politely, "Please Annabella Soulsmith, stand aside so that we may tend to Tansy Hinzard."
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 4:29 pm
Nodding, Annie stood, pushing herself against the wall of machines out of the way. She was an artist, not a doctor. Annie looked over at the girl on the table and she asked quietly, "Can you respond to us, miss?"
Annie had a good guess that the girl with the shaved head on the table was in fact Gidget- the bubbly pink haired girl they were trying to save. The girl seemed to have some knowledge of what was going around her, but how much, she did not know. And these robots were most definitely a Gidget creation- or it sure looked like it...
Annie frowned, realizing that she hadn't seen a move from Charles Ray in the past few minutes that had passed. He was not the type of man to just give up... where was he? She raised her voice, "Mr. Ray, are you around here? I would- we would- like to have a word with you."
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 4:50 pm
The robots begins to use their attachments to clean Tansy's wound. One of them applies QuickClot to her wounds. The powder does its work, but not without a great deal of heat from the burning chemical reaction.
There is no one there to answer Annie's call. The dome is completely closed in by steel walls all around except for the gaping entryway. Gidget doesn't respond vocally, but she does makes a few more ticks than the others had seen since throwing open the door. A-0079 throws his head back as though some invisible person were yanking his non-existent hair. The screens all around display nothing but static. Then in a blink they show everything that A-0079 is laying eyes on. The robot looks around the room as though it was his first time in here. He looks down at Gidget then gives out a definitively feminine scream, "Those assholes shaved my head! Ugh, it's going to take forever to grow it back out that long." The robots mannerisms match what everyone knows of Gidget tit for tat. The tensing up, the huffing and throwing her arms to her sides when she is frustrated, even the squealing.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 5:46 pm
"Oh, god, Gidget." Ako's voice was a mixture of sickness and sadness when he laid eyes on the girl. It was his nightmare realized, and he couldn't put this one out of it's misery. He was snapped back to the present by the robot's scream, and by his decidedly Gidget-like movements. "Gidget, can you hear us?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 9:54 pm
The robot swivels it's head around to look at Ako and the others. There is a metallic huff, like the start of someone crying, that comes from the robots speaker. "You came for me. I knew if I sent Alpha to you that he'd bring you here. I'm so glad that b*****d didn't kill you guys." The machine puts it's giant forearm against it's face and scrapes in a motion that would look like wiping away tears. It looks down at it's and laughs nervously, "Oh right, I'm in Alpha right now. Ako, could you please get me off of the table. I'm putting instructions on how to do so without hurting me on the monitors. There, I should wake up a few minutes after the IV's have been taken out. Oh...and please be gentle when you take out the catheter." The robot squirms girlishly, almost like it's blushing.
The robot shudders and jolts one more time, the directions for disconnecting Gidget are still on the screen. Once more the girl shows signs of life with some twitching. A single tear squeezes it's way out of the goggles that are attached to her eyes. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so happy.
Garret lays a firm hand on Ako's shoulder and grins, "Well, it looks like the little princess wants her knightly prince to wake her from her forced slumber. Heh, you take care of the IV's and catheter, I'll handle the hardware." He walks over to Gidget's head and looks up at the monitor for the directions on removing the goggles. He presses a switch on them, and they move away from her face with a hydraulic hiss. Garret winces at the sight of Gidget's poor eyes. They were being held open with small metal clips like in the film "A Clockwork Orange" the goggles were dropping saline into her eyes every few seconds to keep them moist. He gently removes the clips and is heartbroken still when her eyes wont close. They stay open in a drugged stupor. He looks at the directions again and swears under his breath. These weren't just normal leads, and now he understands why they had to shave her head. Following the directions he take out of each lead individually and retracts the 3 inch needles that were embedded into her brain. He then removes the metal clamps that were holding them into place, which left small opening in her scalp that bled just a little.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:05 pm
Annie turned away as Garret pulled the needles from her head, queasy at the thought. Clenching a fist she slammed the wall, tears streaming down her face. She felt so useless, if she had acted earlier and attacked Charles Ray when she had the chance none of this might have happened. She might as well have done that to Gidget herself. Did she think such a man could have shown compassion.
She said quietly, "I'm going to go find Mr. Ray. You guys take care of Gidget and Tansy." At that she headed out of the steel room and past Tansy and the robots. She didn't know where she was going but, she had to go somewhere... she had to find Charles Ray. She had to settle things.
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:13 pm
Charles Ray throws a large piece of the ceiling off his himself. He shambles up and wipes the blood from his eyes. He looks down at the Foundry from his observation deck on the opposite side of the door to Gidget. He watches as Annie rounds the right side of the dome in search of what he can only assume to be him. Oh, the always temper mental Ms. Soulsmith. He leans forward on a piece of the window support to get a better look at her and gloat. Suddenly, the support snaps lose, forcing Charles to lose his balance and flip end over end to the ground almost 20 feet below the tower. He shouts the whole way down and lands square on his back. An enormous piece of shattered glass follows him and embeds itself into his left leg, pinning him to the ground. He howls in pain and grip his thigh, trying to slow the flow of blood.
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