Oni Joint Story, First Installment: Salvation

Leus · 09/25/09 19:09

You got anything Mukade? If not, I could knock out the next part and maybe you'd feel inspired after that.

Mukade · 09/25/09 19:09

"What happend to you all this time my darling?"

So mai told him the story, from when she was taken to the TCTF up to the present, at least all the importent points. Dr. Hasagawa drank it all in, like a man in the desert. When she had finished, her father looked thoughtful. He was contemplating Mai's present situation with the lossof hr chrysalis.

"It's not dead, but dormant, the chrysalis itself too much damage from the energy web. It needs time to go dormant and heal itself, before it can continue to be your symbionte. How long it will take, i do not know. If the Shinatama with the neural link with you wer still alive, I could calculate the strencth of your chryslais and how long it would take for it to regenerate. But i can't tell you now, it could be in an hour, a day, a week, maybe longer. Until then you are vulnerable. I would suggst now would be a good time to learn to depend on your skills alone. you have a chance many chrysalis hosts won't be able to experience. If you learn to rely on your own abilities, once the chrysalis awakens, you will be able to rely on the combined strength of you and your chrysalis."

Mai considered this for a moment, then nodded. There was logic in his words.
For the next couple weeks, Mai trained hard in her fathers lab, using the ShinBots as practice. Her muscles were hard and thick because of years of hard work, but she was unused to having to use them withoutthe help of the chrysalis. After a few days, she could move like she did before, without staggering or awkward movements. After a week had past, she became more combat ready, although certain abilities she had had before still eluded her, such as jump flipping and her twister kick. After the second week, she was able to defeat most of the Imago hosts, but the more combat trained ones were still able to beat her.
The Imago hosts had also almost completed their recovery. They were now more independant, less afraid. Although they still held a sense of closeness between themselves, and a deep rooted affection for Mai. They also sparred between themselves and improved intheir own combat, taught by Mukade, Barabas, Griffen, and Mai herself sometimes. After the two weeks had passed, they had a small army of chrysalis hosts.

"We should leave now." Mukade suggested at the end of the week

"I agree." Dr. hasagawa turned to his shinbots. "I need you all to guard this place while I'm away."

"Goodbye father" they all said in unison. He smiled.

"I built you well." They giggled

Mai snapped her visor back on, and barabas picked up the wounded girl. The doctor grabbed a breath mask on his way out and slapped it on his face. They had just goten ready to leave. When the door bust open and a dozen heavy BGI troopers filed in and formed two lines, one behind the other, with their guns pointed at the band.
Then, through the door, came Samoko, her Chrysalis Accelerator in hand. Mukade whipped out the gun he had used on Mai, and fired at Samoko before she knew what had happend. She dropped to one knee. The Bgi troopers tensed and prepared to fire, but Samoko held up her hand, a grimance on her face. After a few seconds, it faded and she drew herself up again. She laughed.

"That weapon was created decades ago." MY chrysalis is much more advanced then any of yours.

Mukade fired two more bursts. This time she managed to stay standing, and she only has distracted for a few seconds.

"Drop your weapons and surrender."

"Never"

She sighed.

"I was afraid of that"

She brought her weapon up and fired one long blast at Kyari, the one person from the group who ha started to remember. Before their eyes, she glowed brighter and brighter, and after about 12 seconds, she imploded, collapsing upon herself until she was simply a point of light, then winked out of existence. Mai gaped in horror at the spot that Myari had been standing.

Then the anger began to rise. And the people standing nearest to her gave an exclamation and retreated from her. She had begun to glow once more. She grew brighter, until she was covered with pure energy.

"You'll pay for that!"

Samoko laughed, but there was a note of uncertainty behind her words. She sprinted towards Samoko. The lines ofBGI troopers formed up in front of her and opened fire. The shots disappeared into the storm of light, but had no apparant effect on the entity. She wrapped her hands around the closest officers, lept off the ground, around and snapped his neck and those of 5 other around him with her flying feet. She quickly dispatched the remaining troops and turned her attention to Samoko, who had just sat there the entire time, stunned. Mai jumped, spinning into the air, both fists raised, and brought them both down, hard onto her skull. There was a dull crack and Samoko slumped to the ground.

Gradually, the light faded, and Mai stood there, triumphant.

"Come on, lets go before any more of them show up."

They agreed, and hurried to the entrence, all of them stood for a second where Kyari had fallen, then moved on.

After they had all gone out the door. Samoko, laboriously raised her head to her comm.

Initial raid a failure. Initiate plan Beta.

Leus · 09/25/09 20:09

Ohhhh snap. Ballsy move killing a character I might have had plans for. Of course, totally a legitimate move, and I actually thought it was pretty cool. As it were, I didn't have any real plans for her. Still, ballsy.

I'll write the next part.

Mukade · 09/25/09 20:09

yeah... but she did play a part, the other Imago's were realtively insignificant, i couldn't have made Mai come back without killing off someone vaguely important, in this case, the one person who started to remember her past, which made her special. Thx for that...

Not to sound like a d0uch3, but this is why i try not to pan ahead, things don't alays go as planned, which i believe is one of the problems we had in the RPG

Samer · 09/25/09 20:09

some comments in the part i wrote we said the wounded girl healed immediately .. so Barabas carried the wounded girl doesn't apply

and in my part mai was angry with griffin ... what happened ?

and i hoped to see u expand on how she told her dad muro died

but i liked it ^_^ nice turn of events

Leus · 09/25/09 21:09

@Mukade, yeah makes total sense. Like I said, I didn't really have plans. Glad she could be put to good use.

Leus · 09/25/09 21:09

Well, hell. I'm in the middle of it right now but I'm distracted by something that's going on so I'm gonna go read for my class for an hour or two. I'll finish up later tonight. See you soon, guys.

Leus · 09/26/09 00:09

Man, I got out of hand writing this. This shit is ridiculous. I can't stop now, though, I've gotta follow through. It'll be up pretty soon, I think.

Leus · 09/26/09 00:09

The group was ragtag to be sure; along with Mukade and Barabas, the imago symbiotes now numbered seven. The other five had been assigned names for practical purposes, although none of them had any true memories of their past before the BGI prison. Casey was the tallest and the only one who still retained any apparent hair pigment; a shaggy, pale red crop grew sparsely from his scalp. His eyes were a faded green. The rest consisted of a bald woman called Sam, a man called Ford with scraggly white hair stretching down past his shoulders and a sparse beard, and a woman with crudely-cut, short white hair in tight curls who went by the name Axel. The boy who Barabas had carried from the lab looked like he couldn't have been older than 17, though the look in his eyes suggested otherwise. He was the smallest of the group, bald and with a strange lump on his forehead. He went by the name of Edgar.

All of the imago symbiotes chose their names themselves. Some, not knowing anything else, named themselves after those who had experimented on and tortured them. They all had pink eyes and pale skin, although the one called Axel was clearly of African descent. Most of them had become strong and agile after spending two weaks healthy, well-fed and excercising. Their bodies recovered and adapted quickly to their training. Only Edgar remained somewhat weak.

With Griffin, whose chrysalis was still too young to reach the imago state, Mai, who for some reason remained yet to transform, and the recently awakened James Hasegawa, the group numbered ten in total. Mai had discarded Mukade's armor as her chrysalis grew capable of protecting her once more. Mukade had refused to don it ever again, favoring instead the outfit he'd been given by Frank. James wore a small aparatus over his mouth and nose to filter the air. The group marched for nearly a mile across a dusty barren field of dry dirt and rocks. Finally, Dr. Hasegawa stopped. He knelt down and brushed aside some seemingly arbitrary rocks revealing a small switch. He flipped it and the dirt promptly began to fall into a horizontal opening growing in the dust before them. After some surprisingly quiet humming as the doors slid, the opening ceased to spread after about ten feet had been cleared. A shallow ramp led down a short distance and the group could see a large vehicle parked at the bottom.

"What's this for?" Axel asked, her words hissing through her sharp and jagged teeth.

"An emergency," James replied simply.

The group crawled inside. It was a strange vehicle, heavily armoured and fitted with strange and foreign-looking gadgets.

"Is this thing equipped with any weapons?" Mai asked, turning to her father.

James sighed, glancing down. "I'm sorry you had to grow up in an environment thinking like that," he said. "I never wanted to hurt anyone. I never built anything intended to destroy..." Mai frowned. The thought of a violence-free paradigm sounded both amazing and impossible to her.

Before long the ten of them were on the interstate, Dr. Hasegawa behind the wheel. Griffin rode in the passenger seat and Mai in the middle. The rest were in the back in an open area with bench seating around the perimeter. They had chosen to move in the dead of night so there was barely another car on the road. "We should have brought that weapon," Griffin suddenly said, unprovoked.

Mai expressionlessly withdrew from her jacket the device Samoko had used to decimate Kyari. "Always one step ahead of you, boss," she said rather sarcastically. "This thing spooks me, though. Not many things can, but this thing does."

"I'm sure it's the same for us all," Griffin replied. "It could destroy any one of us in a moment. But it will come in handy."

"Assuming they even have any more chrysalis symbiotes at their disposal," Mai shot back. Griffin nodded without a word.

Edgar sighed meekly. Something was concerning him, but he was nervous about speaking up. "Where are we going?" he finally managed.

"Back to the BGI lab," Mai replied. "We have unfinished business." She looked back at Edgar with a smug grin. Edgar scrambled away at this, pressing himself against the back hatch of the vehicle in the vain attempt to distance himself.

"What's wrong, Edgar?" Mai asked, turning around. The rest of the former imago test subjects saw the look in her eyes and became fearful. "We're taking you back home." She smiled. They all followed suit with Edgar, scrambling to the back of the vehicle, huddled in fear. Barabas looked at them concernedly. They looked back into his eyes with pure terror at the monster he was.

"What's going on?" Griffin asked, glancing over at Mai. She looked back at him.

"This one's for you," she said, a sly and satisfied look in her eye. She pulled out a gun and pointed it into the back of the vehicle, snapping off a shot. It struck Casey in the skull. He slumped forward, his blood and brains spattered against the back windshield.

"NO!" Griffin shouted, grabbing Mai and wrestling her away. James looked over and saw Griffin throttling the life out of Mai. The two toppled over into James' lap, and James swirved the vehicle and crashed into the median on the freeway. Everyone was thrown forward and stunned by the impact.

Mukade sat up after a second, holding his head. He wasn't used to the fragility of his exposed humanoid form. He scratched the short brown hair that grew from the right side of his head and groaned. Everyone else in the car suddenly looked up at him. They had strange yet familiar faces. They were faces of people he had tortured and killed in his past. His heart began to race. "What are you doing here?" he said aloud as they all crawled towards him.

As he looked around though, he could also see the familiar forms of the people he knew sitting up slowly and rubbing their heads and aching appendages in similar fashions after the recent car wreck. He realized he was seeing two different realities simultaneously.

He logically separated the illusions from actual reality and scrambled to the front of the vehicle. He could still see the form of a bloody young woman reaching out at him desparately, but he also saw James Hasegawa unconscious against the steering wheel. He suddenly realized there was a loud and continuous sound ringing out in the night air. He pulled James from the steering wheel and the noise ceased; he must have been laying on the horn.

In actual reality, the people around him began to scream, yell, whimper or fight once more. "EVERYONE!" Mukade shouted. "STOP IT!" He was ignored. Someone punched him in the face and he fell towards the front of the car. Looking out the windshield, she caught a glimpse of a familiar giant robot in the middle of the street walking rapidly towards them and shaking the ground with its steps. Realizing he had no time to lose, Mukade pulled James into the back and jumped into the driver's seat himself. "Hope this thing still runs," he said to himself. Taking the wheel, he backed away from the median, put it in drive and burnt out on the pavement, speeding away from the metal monster.

Ignoring the chaos occurring in the car around him for as long as he could, his passengers gradually began to calm down. "What happened?" Mai finally asked, rubbing her temples as everyone else sighed and groaned.

"The big bad is back," Mukade said. "That machine we fought in the BGI facility. I think it's got some new tricks up its sleeve; messing with our minds and such." Griffin looked back to see Casey safely working out his own kinks from the ordeal.

"I saw some messed up stuff," Mai said.

"I think we all did," Griffin chimed in, looking into her eyes sorrowfully.

"How'd we get out of it?" Mai inquired.

"My body's not the only thing that's part machine," Mukade said, knocking on the metal plate that was the left side of his head. "I somehow saw reality alongside the projected images. Tough to distinguish, but I know what's real and what's not." He quickly realized that he had absolutely no confidence in that statement.

"So we're not really going back to the lab?" Edgar said.

Mai hesitated, looking back. She could tell he was scared; she understood. "Edgar, even I never want to see that place again and I was only there for about fifteen minutse," she said. "But the world is dying, Edgar. The only way we can save it is to go back there and do what has to be done."

"You can't make us go back to that place!" Axel hissed.

"You guys," Barabas spoke up. "This is our chance to truly get revenge on the people who did this to us--ALL of us. Screw saving the world; that's just an added bonus." The previous test subjects seemed dubiously content with this proposition.

"We've got to get there, and quick," Mai urged. "That steel behemoth is probably on its way back as we speak. We've got to beat it there. We've got the advantage while that thing's out of play."

Before long they neared the familiar building once more. "Mukade, pull off here," she said, indicating a driveway into a property adjacent to the BGI building. "Maybe Frank's here. He might be able to help us out." Mukade nodded, pulled in and parked the car. The group got out and walked towards the building. It was unmarked with painted aluminum siding and a plain wooden front door under a small lamp. The ten of them filed through the doorway.

Inside was dark and empty. Before long, though, a few dim lights flickered on and a Frank walked in from the back room. "Hey, glad to see you guys are alright!" he said.

"You don't know the half!" Barabas said. "The BGI attacked us, and we were assaulted by a giant mind-altering robot."

Frank raised his eyebrow, then gaped. "Oh, right. Wow," he said, pausing. "Mind-altering robot, eh? Lemme get a hit of that!" He winked, then chuckled at himself. Mai furrowed her brow.

"We need help," James butted in. "Do you know anything about the BGI facility next door?"

"What?" Frank said, flustered. "I don't know, I mean, what do you mean?"

"Anything," James replied. "Any knowledge of their projects, defenses, building layout..."

"Hmm," Frank said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling and tapping his foot, placing his hand under his chin. He looked very thoughtful. "Well, they probably don't have too many people on staff at the moment. I mean it's the middle of the night after all."

"Do you know that for a fact?" James asked.

"Well, no," Frank replied. "Just an educated guess, I guess." He smiled, then pointed to Mukade. "Nice shirt."

Mai glanced at Mukade. She narrowed her eyes, shifting them back towards Frank. He looked back at her suddenly and their eyes met and locked. She held his stare and he raised his eyebrow before averting his gaze. Mai suddenly lunged forward nearly twenty feet and, before anyone really realized what was happening, had Frank by the shirt collar. "You," she said hostilely to him.

"Take it easy, lady!" he said frantically. "What--"

"He's one of them," she said, addressing her comrades. "He's stalling us right now. He also is having us tracked. Mukade, your shirt."

Mukade donned a concerned expression and quickly tore off his shirt, inspecting it. It didn't take long to find a tiny embedded microchip in the collar. "Oh no," he said simply, dumbfounded. The dim light gleamed off the metal plates, piping and wiring on his arms and torso.

"What!" Frank yelled. "This is ridiculous!" Mai turned him around and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him out and letting him fall to the floor.

"But wait," Mukade said. "If they knew where we were the whole time, why did they take so long to take action against us?"

"Probably working on some big scheme," Mai posited. "The theatrics we saw tonight were likely just the opening act."

"We should get out of here!" Axel barked.

"No!" Barabas countered. "We can beat them, whatever they've got to throw at us! We've got a small army of super-powered and super pissed daodan hosts fighting for what's right! NOTHING can stand in our way."

On cue, a series of loud crashes were heard and the building shook. In through the door rushed dozens of large, pale figures. The former imago test subjects recognized the newcomers as their previous fellow prisoners. They were quicker and bulkier now, though, and they weren't slowing in their aggressive headlong charge towards Mai and her crew.

Last edited by Leus (09/26/09 12:09)

Leus · 09/26/09 01:09

Damnit, I have a few small edits to make to that post but whenever I try to post an edited version it says:

Warning! The following errors must be corrected before your message can be posted:
* Count of options can't be less than 2.

Oh well. I didn't change what happened ultimately; mainly just some grammatical things, the chronology with which something was revealed, and also I gave Ford a beard. Lol.

Leus · 09/26/09 01:09

Shit, I can't edit any of my posts now. I tried re-opening Firefox, restarting my computer... No luck.

Hrm. I wish I could do this edit 'cause I think it'd make my part a bit cooler.

Gumby · 09/26/09 01:09

You are somehow trying to post a poll, I think.

Gumby · 09/26/09 01:09

Gah! Editing is broken.

Samer · 09/26/09 04:09

Very nice there Leus !!
even though i came up with the illusion thingy what u wrote scared me ! it had me going when Mai shot Casey .
and nice revelation for Frank, makes sense.

P.S : I can't edit posts either :S I had the problem since yesterday but I thought it's just me.

I hope it gets fixed soon. mean time I hope the moderators excuse us for double posting

Leus · 09/26/09 10:09

Yeah I really liked your illusion thing so I brought it back.

Mukade · 09/26/09 11:09

Hehe, i was hopin you'd take the bait Leus, that's exactly what i wanted you to do xD
And yes, my editing is broken as well, as of yesterday at least.
@Samoko's little comments on my previous story, you're right about those things, i'd edit my post but
Okay, so during her recount of events, she skipped her little encounter with Muro, he will bring it up later and she will tell him. About Griffin, if u didn't notice, there isn't much socialization betweeen Mai and Griffin, and it had been 2 weeks, she is now simply bitter with him.

Okay, my edit is up again
It always occured tyo me Frank might be a spy, and his behaviour when they got back sorta confirmed it for me
My turn

Last edited by Mukade (09/26/09 11:09)

Samer · 09/26/09 11:09

@ Leus ... a bald woman named Sam -_- and Samoko ... u really like my name huh ?

@ mukade thanks for clarifying that makes sense ...

Leus u're gonna continue ?

btw I don't know whey we're in a rush I don't want it to end quickly.

EDIT : ok mukade's turn and I'm testing the edit

Last edited by Samer (09/26/09 12:09)

Leus · 09/26/09 12:09

Oh yeah I didn't even notice the Sam/Samoko thing... Maybe Samoko's the one who tortured her?

Also yeah I don't want it to end quickly, but I don't want it to stagnate either. When one story arc ends we can always begin another, or maybe start a new story about the past of one of the characters or something. Infinite possibility.

Lookin' forward to your post, Mukade.

Oh, and I edited my part. Pretty much all I did was give Ford a beard and say that Mukade was wearing the clothes Frank gave him in the third paragraph instead of towards the end.

Mukade · 09/26/09 13:09

Mukade drew his weapon and brought one of the Imago's down, twitching, but they recognized the threat and two of them quickly disarmed him and threw the gun out of reach.
He crocuhed and spun his body forward into their legs and knocked them both to the ground. He flipped into the air and came down, one foot on each of their chests. That should have driven the air from their lungs and taken them out of the fight, but they both grabbed his legs and threw him into the wall. Hard. He crumpled the ground. Shakily he got back to his feet, he couldn't let them touch him, he was still too weak. The two Imago subjects recongnized his weakness and grinned evily. Suddenly, Sam, Ford, and Axel, jumped on top of the nearest assailant. The other one turned in surprised at the new comers. Mukade saw his chance, he shadow shifted through the stunned attacker. And before he could turn around, mukade punched him twice which sent him sailing into the wall. He then threw 4 more kicks consecutively into his back. The final kick sent him through the wall. He dropped to the ground outside, his spine had been shattered. He turned around to face his second attacker, only to see that the 3 had already taken him down and incapacitated him. But they didn't have time to recover. Immediately, 6 more took their place. Mukade took his place next to the 3 Imagos.

"I hope you three remember what I taught you."

They didn't reply, but matched his stance, and stood ready. He smiled.

--------

Clearly, the main priority of the assault was Mai herself, 10 of the assailants ran directly at her.
Casey and Edgar joined her side, they were still the two who held Mai in higher effection than the other 3, who had run off to help Mukade in his weakened state. As soon as the group was in striking distence. Mai executed a Devil Spin kick, which sent the nearest half of the group flying back the way they'd come, the 5 behind them, ducked their flying bodies, and kept coming. The fight raged on, for minutes. Three fo them were out of the fight, but the rest kept coming. They were loosing. They joined up with Griffin, who held another 5 at bay, and Mukade backed up into their group. Together they formed a circle of flying limbs but they couldnt keep it up forever. But..where was Barabas and her father? She had heard his voice att he start of the fight, yelling something att he test subjects, but they didn't listen She couldn't wory about that right now however. Itwouldn't matter if she didn't live. They had already downed over a dozen of them but there was another two dozen still fighting.

--------

When James saw the Imago's running at them, he immediately understood what was happening. These subjects would never willingly turn against them. When they started fighting, it merely confirmed his suspisions. They were too...coordinated.

"Stop!" He yelled. "We aren't your enemies."

All he got was the attention of one of the attackers who came right at him. Then Barabas was there and crushed in his enemies skull.

"Barabas!" he yelled over the noise. "I need you to come with me!"

"I need to stay here and help them!"

"You won't be helping anyone if you stay, there are too many!"

"I'm not going to run away!"

"And you won't be! There is a way to stop them from attacking us!"

Barabas reluctantly agreed, and he follow the doctor out a side door. They went around to the front of the building. As they rounded the corner, they saw the Iron demon standing there. He was right, they were being controlled. Fortunately for them, the mind control required its attention and it was unable to defend itself. When Barabas set eyes on it, he immediately dodged behind the corner again, butthe doctor just stood there. Seeing that he wasn't immediately riddled with bullet holes, Barabas stood up, and peaked around the corner. he looked at James, with a look of understanding. He walked up to the behemoth, and searched around it. As he suspected, it HAD undergone some upgrades. In a small, very protected compartment, lay a deadly brain. He knew better then to simply destroy the brain with his bare hands, it's defense systems would activate if it felt any danger towards itself. Instead he looked around the compartment. He found a panel and wrenched it open. It was made of some very heavy metal, and was thus, probably very important. inside, he found a mess of wires. He grabbed a handful of them and pulled

--------

The Imago subjects suddenly stopped fighting, they blinked and looked around. Confused. A minute later, Barbas and her father returned through the door, and she knew what had happened.

-----------

Samoko looked in disappointment at the cameras installed in the warehouse. That doctor was stating to become a real nuisence. Now she had lost much of her Imago army because of him. She pressed a button on teh console in front of her and walked way from the screen, she didn't need to see this.

----------

In the warehouse, all of the former attackers shuddered, and collapsed to the ground convulsing. They all stood in shock at what had happend. It took all of Mai's control to keep her temper in check. She knew what had happend. Samoko hadn't let all these Imago subjescts to go into battle without some sort of Fail Safe. She had most likely implanted a chip into each of their brains, those chips which had just releases enough electricity to bring down 5 fully grown elephants. Enough to permanently destroy them.

"Lets go." said dr. Hasagawa solemnly. "This building isn't safe anymore."

As they exited the structure, Casey paused.

"wait."

He looked around and saw a burning barrel by the street. He grabbed a flaming board out of the fire, and tossed it into the warehouse they had just evacuated. The warehouse was very old, and was made primarily of wood, wearas the newer ones were made of metal. The warehouse blazed almost imediately. They stood for a minute in silence. Thenthey turned and headed back to Hasagawa's van. Mai put an arm around Casey.

"Thank you. Those people in their deserve a cremation, not to be left to the BGI to toss into a pit and left there."

Casey took comfort in her words, and in the arm around his shoulders.

Before Mukade boarded the van, he stripped his shirt, and hooked it onto a passing car.

"That should keep them off our trail for a time."

They all piled into the van. Mukade and James sat inthe front. Mai was on one side, with Edgar and casey on either side. Both of them fell asleep on her shoulder. She put an arm around both of them and drifted to sleep herself. Across from them. Barabas, Griffen, and the other 3 Imago's sat, tired but alert.

Leus · 09/26/09 13:09

Yes! Lol, we are really apparently on the same page in this story. I was totally thinking that the Iron Demon/Deadly Brain was controlling the imagos.

Anyway, I gotta go to work soon, so Samoko (or some unexpected newcomer, potentially), feel free to claim the next part. If nobody has by later tonight, I'll probably do it.

P.S.: Mukade, what did I do in my part that you said I "took the bait" for and was exactly what you wanted me to do? Lol. Just out of curiosity.

Mukade · 09/26/09 13:09

When I said "Plan beta" i was hoping you'd bring the Enhanced Iron Demon back in. After mine and Samoko's double post, i did want to bring that concept back in, and that seemed like the perfect time
Great minds think alike don't they Leus?

Leus · 09/26/09 13:09

Apparently so.

Man, I dig this thread quite a bit. I'm glad you guys took an interest in it.

Samer · 09/26/09 16:09

I have a big research that i should hand in on the first day of uni ... ( been postponing it a lot ) so I'm not going to be writing any time soon even though i really want to ... I look forward to what u're going to write though !

Leus · 09/26/09 20:09

Alright, I knocked out my homework super fast so I'll write the next part. I'll be honest, I have no idea where I'm goin' with it. We'll see what happens.

Sorry to hear you won't be available much anymore, Samoko. If you ever find yourself with some free time make a cameo appearance.

Leus · 09/26/09 21:09

They'd been on the road for a little while now. There was desert stretching down either side of the narrow road, an unfamiliar sight for most of them as they'd grown up in an arcology of streets and skyscrapers, or in a stark and bright lab never even seeing sunlight. Mai shifted restlessly between the snoring Casey and Edgar.

"Hey. Get up," Axel said suddenly, looking at Mai. Mai cocked her head, confused. "Let me take your place; you look like you could use a stretch."

"Thanks," Mai said, smiling. Axel stood up and stepped to the other side of the bay, swiftly switching positions with Mai and letting Casey and Edgar rest their heads on her shoulders. Mai stretched as much as she could in the cramped space, then climbed up front and jumped over the bench seat, settling in between her father and Mukade.

"Hey, sweetie," James and Mukade said simultaneously, then glanced strangely at one another. Mai laughed.

Mukade cleared his throat. "That was uncharacteristic of me, I'll be honest," he said with good humour. "I guess you just bring out the best in people."

"Sometimes," Mai said. "Sometimes I bring out the worst." She sighed, then turned to James.

"What is it?" James asked, sensing the vibe from her before even looking to see the concern on his daughter's face.

"I've got to tell you something," she said. "I know you've been trying not to ask, and I know you probably don't want to hear it, but ultimately you deserve to know."

They were silent for a moment. "It's about Muro, isn't it?"

"Yes," she responded. James sighed, then nodded. "He's dead," she said, coming right out with it.

"I know," James said, unable to keep a tear from almost immediately sliding down his cheek regardless. "I could tell; could almost feel it..." He swallowed.

"I killed him," Mai continued.

"What?" James choked, turning to face her and swerving a little bit.

"Dad!" she said, and he quickly corrected his driving. "Dad, he's the one that's responsible for this. I left out the details about Muro because I didn't know how to tell you, but I realize I've just got to be upfront, lay it out and not leave out or build up to anything. He's the reason this world is dying."

"Mai, stop!" he nearly shouted. He paused, more tears streaming down his face. "I know, you're trying to be blunt and honest, just give me the facts... But this hurts, Mai. To know my son was a monster... It hurts more than I could have imagined." He hesitated once more. "It hurts more than when your mother died."

"Dad," she said, tears forming in her eyes as well. "I'm sorry..."

"I know," he said, putting his arm around her and pulling her close. Mai realized that for the first time, everything felt real. Her whole life she'd been in a dark fantasy world of superheros and crime fighting, completely without anyone she considered true family. Even Shinatama, whom she loved, was ultimately a machine and she'd always acknowledged this in the back of her mind. Now her father was back and the life and death of his child and her sibling were suddenly weighing heavily on her. This man beside her to whom she was truly connected and truly loved was in pain, and she was sharing it.

They sat there like that for a few moments, silently crying. Then they were quiet and still for a while longer. Finally, Mai fell asleep and breathed softly. James sighed.

"Where are we going?" Mukade finally asked after a bit.

"To the processor out in Stoneridge," James replied. "Since we can't seem to be able to breach the BGI facility, I figure we've got a shot at learning something useful here. We're running out of options and time."

"I know," Mukade said. "I just--" Mai suddenly breathed in sharply and sat up. Promptly, she leaned the other way and continued her nap against Mukade's shoulder, smacking her lips a few times. Mukade and James exchanged a smile, and Mukade began to gently pet her head as she slept.

"She's amazing," James said.

"I know," Mukade replied. "She really turned out to be quite an incredible young woman."

"Yes, and I can't believe I'm just now seeing it," James continued. "I can't believe I spent nearly her entire life's story without her." He closed his eyes tightly, but opened them before a dangerous amount of time had passed, keeping track of the road. "And now I join the script during what's probably the closing scene."

"Don't say that," Mukade assured him. "We'll overcome this. Mai will overcome this. Look at what she's overcome already. Half the people in this car would have killed her on sight last month. She swayed us all, with her reason but mostly with her heart and spirit."

There was a pause. "She's amazing," James reiterated.

---

"So what's your story?" Axel hissed, quietly but suddenly.

Barabas snapped out of his daze and looked back at her. "Who, me?" Barabas responded.

"Of course you, silly," she said. "You're the one who busted me out of that place and I've never even though to ask you about yourself."

Barabas smiled at her strange yet confident manner of speech. It was remarkable for her situation in life, he thought. "Well, I don't really know," he said. "Don't have much of one I guess. I don't remember my parents; I was with the Syndicate for as long as I can remember. My goals consisted of how much weight I could lift, how many cement blocks I could bust and later how many skulls I could bust. And believe me, I was a star achiever." He sighed.

"Hey," Axel said, noting his regretful tone. "You've left that behind you, just like we've left our life of submission behind us."

"It's still clear as day in the rear view," he countered. "A month ago I considered my life of pain to be the one I should lead."

"And two weeks ago I considered my life of fear the only one I ever would," she countered in turn. "Look to the future, man!"

"But you TOLD me to look to the PAST!" he snapped back, a bit aggressively. "I'm sorry," he said immediately.

"No sweat," Axel responded without missing a beat. "You're right. I dragged it up. I'M sorry."

Barabas smiled at her. "We're gonna be alright, aren't we?" he said, a strange and optimistic feeling rising in him.

Axel smiled back and nodded.

Last edited by Leus (09/26/09 22:09)

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