"Once Bitten... Pt. III"
//Collab. between LegacyCloud & AnnCarise//
Mischa's eyes flickered as her world slowly came back into focus; she cringed slightly, raising a hand to her forehead at the unwelcome greeting of a headache to her waking moments. Her mind raced to catch up with itself as she stared up at the bright lights of the ceiling above her - trying to comprehend what was happening and where she was.
Then the memory of her last waking moments registered; the brief surge of pain which coursed through her body as Rawlings shocked her with his omni-tool, Mischa groaned groaned painfully while rubbing her brow. "Good morning sleepyhead" Came the overly chirpy greeting from one of the scientists as she approached Mischa, "How are we feeling?" Although wearing a mask, Mischa could still hear the false smile sprawled across the scientists face as she spoke; but panic set in along with her defensive reflexes.
"Get away from me! I won't let you do this to me!" She warned, shuffling herself sideways off the opposite side of the bed and crumpling to the floor with a unpleasant thud. "Easy now sweetheart, your body needs time to recover from the surgery; now tell me, how are you feeling?" An uneasy pause followed as Mischa remained crouched beyond the medical bed, breathing rapidly and deeply; eyes darting back and forth as her mind raced to comprehend her situation, "You'll be pleased to know that the implantation was a complete success..." The scientist continued, "... It may take some getting used to bu-..." "What have you done to me?!" Mischa voice raised with wavered with building rage, cutting the scientist off mid sentence as she slowly stood - a bright biotic glow encompassing her entire form as she held an arm out to observe with an acute curiosity mixed with a distinct air of fear, "YOU! You... did this to me!" she barked even louder at the scientists who was now taking an uneasy step backwards; though not soon enough as Mischa roared with anger, causing her entire body to emit an explosion of biotic energy which swept outwards from her in a perfect sphere as she spread her arms and levitated slightly off the ground. The wave rippled against the wall behind her causing the monitors to smash while it pushed forwards and launched the medical bed at an alarming rate, which struck the scientists across her chest and knocked her unconscious to the floor.
Mischa dropped back to the floor, breathing heavily in shock at what she had just done; she had no control over this and her eyes fell wide with fear and confusion. Slowly looking around the room at the destruction she had just caused without even thinking about it the same biotic glow gently pulsed from her entire body and flashed from her eyes before fading - I have to get out here...
Alarms began blaring across the room as the door slid shut and the panel beside it lit up red, marking it as locked. A calm female voice joined into the noise; from the meticulous way every syllable was pronounced and the complete lack of emotion, it was probably a virtual intelligence.
"Security breach detected. Lock-down initialized in Section D."
Mischa's wide - panic stricken - eyes darted around the room as the lighting dimmed to little more than a deep red, before her attention was caught by the sound of the door sealing; her focus immediately settling on the red lit panel to it's side - Oh God, Oh God, I've got to get out of here! - she ran up to the panel activating her omni-tool as she moved and jabbed her palm against it; fingers working the tool furiously as she put her superior knowledge to use to override the mechanism, "Come on... come on...". A simple locking mechanism was inevitably no match for one with such an intimate programming knowledge and it was not long before the panel flickered back to it's default orange hue while the door could be heard unsealing.
Mischa could only stand back and watch as the door slid open, hunkered back and completely unaware that she was again emitting a biotic glow as she prepared for the worst to greet her on the other side...
Beyond the door was a much larger room filled with consoles and tables with lab equipment on the surface. The two shorter walls of the room possessed a single door each, while several doors were on the two longer walls, one of which Mischa had just emerged from. Every single one displayed as locked. The room was completely unoccupied, though it seemed that most of the computers and equipment were still left running with a few pieces having been knocked over; the scientists here had clearly left in a hurry once the alarms came on.
For a few moments the room remained empty, eerily so in the darkness of the dim red lighting. Then, a door on one of the shorter walls slid open and two LOKI mechs stepped inside, each armed with an M-4 Shuriken machine pistol. Upon entering, they turned to Mischa immediately, pointing their weapons at her.
One of the mechs spoke in its characteristic robotic voice, "Unauthorized for lethal force. Subdue and suppress."
With that, both mechs lowered their guns, holstering the weapons onto their hips as they began to close in on Mischa.
Mischa watched fearfully as the two mechs approached; scoffing
slightly under her breath when she saw them lower their weapons, "I guess the Illusive Man doesn't want to risk damaging his precious experiment.."
She lifted her arm once more, activating her omni tool and working it with her second hand, glancing up on occasion as the two mechs calmly approached. With the lead mech closing to within reach, as it approached she raised her hand wearing the omni-tool and transmitted the override signal she had just programmed; the mech froze on the spot - twitching slightly as tiny sparks flared out from the base it's neck before it once again drew it's weapon, turning on the other mech and shooting it's head unit clean off before self destructing itself.
Mischa couldn't help but allow herself a small chuckle at how easily overcome they were - at least to her - kneeling down she retrieved the first mech's Shuriken and looked up around the room. The door from which the mechs emerged was now unlocked so rather than blindly attempting to hack more locks she decided to proceed in that direction. Standing up she briefly studied the weapon - such an alien contraption to her - though a brief scientific analysis soon afforded her the basics as tried to achieve a balanced aim of the gun and quickly found the thermal clip release, surmising it's purpose with remarkable accuracy for one who had never held a gun before. Still she did not feel comfortable wielding such a device and so it was carried in a lowered position with both hands gripping as she progressed forwards and opened the next door.
The VI spoke again as Mischa stepped through the door into the hallway, "Lock-down of Section-D is in progress. All non-security personnel, please evacuate the area."
The hallway was not particularly long and contained several other doors, all of them locked except the one that Mischa had come through. There was little of note in the hallway except for a datapad lying on the floor beside a few smashed test tubes; the items were likely dropped by the fleeing scientists.
She did not yet know if the information would prove pertinent or not, but since it obviously gave details regarding the project they had used her for against her will she felt it prudent to pocket the datapad for future reference and quickly set about moving on with her escape. Looking around and not knowing one direction from the other she turned to the nearest side door and repeated her process from before to hack the locking panel in her desperation to find a way out.
The door was hacked just as easily as the first and slid open to reveal a large mess hall, abandoned just like all the other rooms.
Feeling uneasy at the eerie silence draped across the large mess hall, Mischa moved cautiously around the perimeter as her eyes darted back and forth across the room in search of something.
Then they settled on it - a terminal set against the far wall - she made a beeline to it as quickly as she reached it, her hands were a flurry across it's keyboard as she broke through layer after layer of - what she deemed to be - base level protection until she got into the underlying code. From there it was a simple matter to trace and display a schematic of the Zhuge Liang.
Tracing a fingertip across the holographic display she quickly worked out her best route back to Gabe's ship and promptly shut the terminal down again - wiping all traces of her presence there as she went. With the terminal clear she turned to scan the room once more confirming it was still empty and then made haste to a door in the near corner - just a few more of these and I'm back at the airlock...
The door opened to a long hallway which two LOKI mechs were proceeding down. One of them stated "Hostile detected" and they marched on towards Mischa. Behind her, another door slid open across the mess hall to reveal two more mechs, and their metallic footsteps could be heard on the walkways of the level above.
"Shit!" Mischa skidded to a halt as she stepped through the door to see the two Loki's advancing, she turned back in to the mess hall, "Oh, come on!" she let out a heavy sigh as her gaze shifted left to right - from one group of Loki's to the next as she weighed her options. Quickly stepping back from the mess hall into the corridor beyond which she knew she needed to progress through in order to reach the ship on her pre-planned route, she punched the door panel with the side of her hand before turning it palm down as she again activated her omni-tool to undo the work she just did and reseal the door.
Glancing periodically over her shoulder as the two mech's continued their steady and predictable approach, she worked the inner controls of her omni-tool furiously with her fingertips to not only lock the door again but under a new algorithm which would prevent the mech's beyond from being able to open it. With that done she turned to see the two Loki's coming down the corridor towards her had gained faster than she anticipated and so in a panic she drew the Shuriken from her hip and fired blindly at them.
Through more luck than judgement one of the many rounds she fired off popped the first Loki's head clean off causing the second to pause and turn sideways to assess it's decapitated partner before drawing it's own sidearm on Mischa. Blinking briefly in disbelief at what she just witnessed she fired again - but nothing happened as she'd overheated it the first time - and the mech drew closer still causing a rising panic within her. Not knowing what else to do she forced her eyes closed in an effort to focus and subconsciously dropped into a prone position as the Loki continued to step closer. As it came within a few steps of being within reach her body began to emit the same biotic glow as before. It pulsed for the briefest of moments before she rose up sharply, spreading her arms more purposefully than before - having learned from that prior incident - and as she did, her body lifted from the ground and another powerful explosion of biotic energy pulsed outwards - shattering screens and wall displays while launching tables and their contents clean across the room.
Landing with an unpleasant and uncontrolled thud while screaming out in pain, she clutched her head with both hands as she was suddenly struck with the most intense pain she had ever felt in her life, coursing through her head. Panting heavily still, she looked up to see a rather confused Loki Mech stood just a few meters in front of her, it looked at her before looking down at itself and then promptly falling apart at every joint; laying in heap of broken parts on the floor.
Mischa's adrenaline-fueled body continued to breath sharply as she pushed the pain in her head - and the fear of what was causing it - to the back of her mind as she bolted forwards, running for the far end of the corridor and onwards that bit closer to her escape.
"Subject located in Corridor D-Zero-Four-Nine," the VI's voice broadcasted. "Releasing stun agents. Please stay clear of the area."
A pale gas slowly began to seep up from beneath the floors of the hallway.
Mischa grew fearful at the sight of the gas forming and drew every ounce of energy she could muster to run for the door faster, and faster, and... was that the faintest hint of a biotic glow gently pulsing from her as she sped up...? Reaching the door and knowing she had not time to think twice, she quickly overrode the locking panel and darted through to the other side - sealing the door shut behind her. Now she stood in that most vulnerable of positions and she knew it as her body tensed; still facing the door she had just locked shut and with absolutely no idea of who or what would be waiting to greet her when she turned around...
The room she had entered was a circular one, matching the shape of the cylindrical structure running down the middle. The doors on the tube-like structure indicated that it was a lift. There were four doors located at equidistant points around the circular wall; this room was likely a small lobby that connected this area to the other decks of the ship.
Mischa finally released her held breath in a heavy sigh after turning to be greeted by an empty room. With no time to waste she trotted over to the lift - rolling her eyes in slight exasperation at seeing it was also locked down - seriously, why do they even bother? - she thought to herself as she again activated her trusty omni-tool over the control panel and made short work of her override. She stepped back cautiously with her hand hovering over the pistol on her hip; unsure of what - if anything - the lift would be bring with it...
Suddenly, three of the four doors (excluding the one Mischa arrived through) opened up, and four armoured humans stormed out from each of the doorways. Assault rifles raised, they began to slowly surround her.
"We're not here to hurt you!" one of them shouted. "We just need you to come with us. Please set your weapon on the floor, ma'am. Everything will be fine if you don't resist."
Jumping around in surprise as they all appeared, Mischa nervously inched backwards, "Just leave me alone! I... I don't want to hurt you!" She screamed back at the one who spoke; though she knew before she even spoke just how fruitless her plea would be.
With her back almost pressed against the lift door, and her options all but removed; Mischa cringed and once again forced her eyes shut - wincing in anticipation of the pain that would come as she focused her energy. Within seconds she was bowing forwards with her arms folded across her chest when another explosion of biotic energy pulsed outwards from her in a spherical wave which launched each of the commandos against the wall lining the room.
Mischa again dropped to her knees and screamed in agony as she clutched her head - the searing pain running through her temple worse than ever - she was so overwhelmed by this that she failed to notice the lift doors open behind her...
Though their kinetic barriers protected the commandos from major damage, the shock of the biotic wave and of being slammed against the wall made them struggle to stand up. Some managed to get to their feet faster than others; thinking quickly, one of them drew the stun baton on his waist, charging Mischa with the weapon raised. However, before he could reach her, the commando found himself floating upwards, then launched back at the wall, though very gently this time.
"Stand down, Centurion," a familiar voice sounded from the lift. "I'll handle this."
Mischa looked up and back into the open lift, her face visibly lightening up as her eyes settled on the familiar form of Gabe standing over her. With instincts running so her it was all she could do to rise to her feet and throw her arms around his shoulders, though quickly regaining her focus and stepping back awkwardly as she turned her attention to the commando Gabe had a hold on, "Leave them..." she pleaded, trying to push Gabe back into the lift, "Please... I- I'm so scared Gabe, I just need to get out of here!" She looked up at him probably more doe-eyed than she realised.
Gabe froze as Mischa threw her arms around his shoulders. Around them, the commandos had all regained their footing and their weapons, though they kept the rifles lowered. As Mischa stood back and spoke Gabe simply nodded, moving to operate the lift controls. Only when the doors slid shut and the lift began to descend did he begin to speak.
"I'm so sorry," he talked softly, clearly distressed. "I had no idea you were tricked into this."
Gabe paused for a moment, then sighed, "I need to go to Cybele. I think it's best if you come with me, but I won't force you to do anything if you don't want to."
Comments