First Sin: The Runaway Experiment (Pt. 3)
--- Scarlet ---
Her other self wanted to rush the base and tear into her enemies, but at the same time she knew that while the blood of her enemies would taste oh so sweet, that she actually had another reason for being here. And unfortunately she wasn’t sure she could accomplish that goal if she had to spend all of her time fighting or sneaking around.
She glanced at the man watching her calmly, simply waiting for her decision.
Despite her instincts telling her he was harmless, they were also telling her not to trust him. Not because of anything he’d done, so much as by how many times other people had screwed her over.
“Why are you helping me?” She decided to ask him bluntly rather than wasting time trying to figure it out for herself.
The man scratched at the scar on his neck before sighing. “The world is a fucked up place.”
She frowned, refusing to accept that as an answer before the man decided to continue.
“I’ve watched as the monsters took over, ate the innocent people up and spat them out as even worse monsters than them in a cycle of blood and hate.” The man stared at his hand for another moment, before clenching it as his face began to twitch. “Eventually I got sick and decided to do something about it. And the men who are after you, well…”
Hate filled eyes met her own and for a moment she saw a burning rage even greater than either of herselves could claim, a hate that made her for just a second believe he was as dangerous as he claimed.
“They’re more monsters to my feast.”
She swallowed, before inhaling deep and letting it out.
“Can you sneak in?” She asked, deciding to trust him.
“Vigilance isn’t the only ghost in this town.” The man smirked just a touch of sadism tinging it with his previous rage.
She half growled at his joke. “They have other prisoners here, can you save them?”
The man’s face sobered. “As many as I can, and ten more than that.”
(I only need you to save the one.)
“Then I’ll be the distraction.” She told him. “I’m not the best at stealth and this way I’ll at least be able to pull them away from the prisoners, who won’t be able to fight.”
“I’ll get them out as fast as I can.” The man promised with enough determination that for a moment she actually believed him.
--- Mercer ---
He didn’t actually feel all that comfortable leaving the kid to fight off the horde of soldiers guarding this place, but at the same time he also knew that without his gear he was in no shape to be playing one-man-army either.
(Honestly, playing ghost is probably the only thing I can do unhindered.) He forced himself to admit to himself if no one else. (Bet the old man is glad I’m using the skills he taught me instead of going in guns blazing.)
An explosion from nearby marked the girl having used one of his smaller explosives on a car’s gas tank to start off her end of this assault.
Painfully slow, he counted to ten before getting to work on his own end of things as he pried open the door he’d spotted hiding in one of the walls.
As the door opened enough for him to see inside he found an elevator shaft empty save a set of cables used to raise and lower the elevator, who knows how far below.
Not even thinking twice about it he jumped through the opening he’d made and loosely grabbed the cables, not enough to actually stop his descent but enough to slow it to something survivable. (And this is why we get the padded gloves boys and girls.)
After falling what he believed to be a good five or six storeys he found himself on top of the actual elevator.
Subtly opening a maintenance hatch in the roof of the elevator he found a number of guards beginning to file in to deal with the rampaging teen above before she attracted any unwanted attention from the local Mask community. Namely the one that he was hoping to get out of here before they arrived too. (Meaning I really should get to work.)
Closing the hatch, he pulled a knife out and quickly began cutting the elevator’s cables. A feat only possible due to the fact that his knife wasn’t actually his knife so much as it was a high-tech one he stole from one of the numerous safehouse Vigilance kept throughout the city.
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(Wonder if he knows how much of his shit I steal, or if he just assumes it’s one of his sidekicks taking all of this junk?)
The second the cable snapped his hand shot out to the wall in case this wasn’t as low as the elevator could go.
When the elevator fell no lower he let out a breath of relief, as he remembered the one time he’d gotten the ground floor wrong when doing this trick.
It took only a few moments for the guards to realize something was wrong with the elevator, and given the emergency going on above they rushed out of the elevator and towards another exit hopefully a decent distance away from this one.
Dropping through the hatch, he quickly checked down the now hall before nodding to himself and making his way out. (Here’s hoping the kid is having it this easy.)
--- Scarlet ---
Her hand stretched and swelled as her flesh tore open as her muscles and bones grew too big for her skin before knitting itself shut as her hide grew back in to cover the appendage now three times bigger and stronger than it had been before.
Just the perfect size to help her rip a soldier in two (or is it six?) with her claws. Something she’d fantasized about for years as she endured their abuses.
“Come on! This the best you fuckers got?!” She roared, feeling the ridges of her spine beginning to poke out as more and more of her other-self bled through.
A series of gunshots was her response, as half of them hit her hardened hide and the other tore through the still squishy bits of her body only to immediately start healing.
Shaking her head as she pushed past the (insignificant) pain, she threw her arm out and tore the door off of a car before throwing it at her attackers. Hitting one hard enough to split him in two and sending the two more scattering as they took cover behind a nearby car.
Using her half turned legs she leapt across the parking lot and landed on top of the car before reaching down, grabbing one of the soldiers by their head, and proceeding to rip their throat out with her teeth.
She swallowed the (sweet sweet meat), pushing back the burning in her veins for a few more seconds as she tossed the corpse to the side and turned her attention to the other soldier.
Feeling the burn of Malice and flame invading her lungs, she inhaled as deeply as she could before exhaling and unleashing a torrent of flames upon the cowering soldier. One of the most cathartic things she’d ever done, given the number of times she’d been subjected to flames herself in pursuit of their ‘research’.
A growl tore through her throat as she hunched over, feeling more and more of her body twist and distort as her other self slowly took over.
Her ears twitched as she heard movement behind her, distinctly different from the boots of the soldiers she was going to (slaughter and devour), namely due to the fact of how much quieter it was than any of them. Something that immediately set her other self on edge.
She stood absolutely still, the (predator) in her demanding that she wait until the most opportune moment to strike.
Whoever stood behind her took another silent step closer and she moved grabbing the burning (thing) at her feet before chucking it at whoever was behind her, hoping to throw them off guard long enough to get in another kill strike.
Instead something sharp pierced into her shoulder, forcing her to take a step back as she found herself staring at a figure dressed in black and gray, the shadows of the night seemingly following him as he stepped into the light.
--- Mercer ---
(I’m getting sick of all of these white walls.) He frowned, the sheer sterileness of this hellhole bugging him in a profound way. (Can’t wait until I can burn this bitch down.)
Coming to another intersection he glanced down every hall before pausing as he spotted a camera down one hall, more specifically the first camera he’d seen in his entire time traversing this maze of halls.
(And what exactly could the underground labs want to keep an eye on more than anything else?)
Not actually needing to know the answer to that question, he made his way towards the camera before glancing down the hall and seeing a large metal door at the end. (As well as a number of dormant security measures in the walls, if those panels are anything to go off of.)
Figuring that since the guards likely thought they knew where the threat was, he decided to risk being caught on the camera and made his way to the door while examining it and its walls. (Hmm, door covers most of the wall so the indestructible door fallacy isn’t going to do me much good even if I had the equipment necessary to pull it off. So how do I?)
“Well, hello there.” He said as he spotted a keycard scanner, namely one of the more mundane ones rather than the M.A.D. tech one would expect of a secure facility such as this one. (More proof that this place is an old Asylum facility.)
Figuring that the scanner couldn’t be too powerful, he pulled out an encryption keycard that he’d (again) stolen from one of Vigilance’s safe houses and put it in the card scanner. (Ah, got to love the tools his paranoia has cooked up.)
After a few minutes for the key to do its job the door unlocked and he removed the key while hoping that this door was on the same clearance level as the rest of the doors he’d come across. Inside he found a small hall with a metal door at the end, one that he quickly noted wouldn’t open if its counterpart was open as well.
And even more trap panels on the walls meant that the owners of this place really didn’t want whatever was behind that door getting out. (All the more reason to open it.)
Letting the door close behind him, he swiped the next card scanner which luckily enough had the same credential requirements as the first door letting him open the door without having to take the time to reset his keycard.
As the door slowly opened he found himself frowning at the sight of a thin figure pinned to the wall by a variety of machinery as electricity sparked along the walls.
This sight was made all the worse by the sudden blaring of the buildings internal alarms. A sound that had the figure’s solid black eyes snapping open.