Re: The Phenomenal Fracas! (GBS2G6): [Round Three: HMS Thunderhead]
06-03-2011, 02:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-28-2014, 06:07 AM by Anomaly.)
"Riko!"
"Hmm?" The scientist still seemed a little out of it to Syvex, but at least he responded this time. Syvex noted that Riko had at some point lost the Endorphic Core as well. Perhaps the two were connected.
"Are you feeling alright now? Because I sort of need your help, and now would be a good time."
"What..." Riko winced a little and shook his head. "What do you need, exactly?"
Syvex held up his wine bottle, flashing its bright label of "Château de Afterparty" at the scientist.
"You need help with wine?"
"Wine? No no no, this is nothing like that. It's a bottle of... well, you weren't there in the tower back in Afterparty, but it's a liquid version of some kind of energy from there. Whatever it is, it brings back my shadow powers when I drink it, but it doesn't last long."
"And... what'd you want me to do about that?"
"Well, you had that stuff in that vial that did just about the same thing. Thought you could make the effects of this stuff permanent, maybe?"
"Look, I..." Riko trailed off for a moment, clearly unfocused. "I can't help you with that without GRIMACE's facilities."
"Well, that's just great. I'm guessing you can't just contact them or something."
As if on cue, Riko's radio crackled with a deep, Russian-accented voice. "31. This is Randolph Markovnikov. We're within range of the... zeppelin now. Are you in possession of the core?"
Riko started in surprise. "Er, I... No, sir, I lost it. It's on the zeppelin somewhere, sir."
"No matter. We'll send an operative to retrieve it at once. Now, then, 31. I assume you would prefer to come aboard than stay in this dinghy any longer?"
"Yes, sir."
"He's not the only one who'd like to leave, Rambo!"
Riko turned to face the serpent, managing to stumble on his way. "Sir, you'll have to ignore him, he's-"
"Who was that, 31?" the commander questioned.
"Oh, he's... He's a 'friend', I guess. Big shadow snake alien, another contestant in this 'battle'. He was weakened a while ago and wants our help to fix that."
"Bring him on, then. I'll have a security team ready to receive him. Stand by for transport."
"Transport? What's he mean by that?"
After a blinding flash of light which lasted for far too long, Syvex found himself in another room entirely. The cold, angular machines throughout the small, cramped room reminded Syvex of Interstice enough to make him shudder. Despite the death and danger of this battle, at least it had let him escape the laboratory. Unless he were to survive to the end. Would he just be sent back to Interstice? Was it his fate to either die or be pursued forever? Surely something else would come after. Surely he'd be able to pay attention when I am talking to you whoa wait what
Syvex immediately realized that another human, dressed in distinctly more scientist-like attire than Riko, had been talking to him since he arrived.
"I... er... hi," Syvex stammered. "Riko tell you about me?"
The scientist's brow furled, barely noticeable behind his oversized pair of mirrored goggles. "No, in fact, he didn't. He hasn't even said anything since you two got here. All I've heard was that some sort of large shadow snake needed medical help for some reason or another, and now you're here. I'm the doctor. Enough wasting time, let's go."
The tall, black-haired doctor immediately turned and left through the door, Syvex following behind, flanked by a number of guards. GRIMACE didn't want to take any chances, that was for sure. They traveled through an endless series of identical hallways and lifts, eventually coming up to yet another blank steel door. The doors silently swished open, revealing a dark, dreary operating room. Syvex shuddered further. He had a distinct hatred of operating rooms and an extreme distrust of doctors, and here both were at the exact same time.
"Alright, we're here. What was it that you needed, snake?"
Syvex held up the bottle, giving the doctor the same explanation he gave to Riko.
"I see. Although that doesn't exactly tell us much about what's in the bottle, I think we can manage. Get on the table."
Reluctantly, Syvex climbed onto the human-sized table, half of his body hanging off the end. They were going to help him, it would be fine, he would finally get his shadow powers back, he could trust Riko, he could trust this doctor, this doctor didn't have anything against him, this doctor certainly wouldn't just use him for research no that couldn't happen this wasn't like that laboratory this was different he would be fine he needed his powers restored right yes he did and this was the only chance he had to do that nothing bad would happen NOTHING WOULD GO WRONG AND
Syvex's frantic thoughts died away as the anesthesia took hold.
"Subject 384."
"Huh? What?"
"Subject 384. It's time for testing."
"...Hikaru? What? No, I can't..."
"Subject 384. Testing will commence in ten seconds."
Dr. Hikaru's features remained stony, automated as he spoke. He was slowly enveloped by light, his features melting away into nothingness. Syvex inquisitively observed the testing room, but found most of it to be drenched in searing light.
"Testing will commence in 3... 2... 1... zero."
The lights shut off. Syvex wasn't in a testing room at all, he was just in a massive empty concrete chamber. No... not empty. In the far corner lay the huddled form of a young woman, no older than her mid-twenties. On closer inspection, her tattered clothes looked quite familiar to the serpent.
"Eureka?"
The woman looked up at Syvex, wide-eyed. She said nothing, her gaze fixed intently on the serpent, an expression of horror frozen on her face. Moments later, the intense lights came on again, and Eureka shrieked. Syvex blundered blindly through the white void, not able to find the source of the screams. He tried to call out in desperation, but no words escaped from his throat. The screams died out suddenly as the lights shut off. In Eureka's place, there lay only a large pile of clothes. Syvex approached the pile slowly, and
the shelling began. From the Empire base's numerous cannons, explosives of all sizes rained down upon the Stratonian task force. Syvex had to stop them. He propelled himself into the air with a series of portals, and launched himself in an arc over the base. He launched bursts of shadow at each cannon, managing to destroy them all. He attempted to open a portal to slow his descent on the other side, but his arms didn't respond. To his horror, his arms were gone completely.
Down, down, down he fell into the gaping chasm on the other side. Eyes stared at him from all sides, watching without care the snake's descent. Soon Syvex was falling up through the chasm, up and up and up past glowing blue runes which ran along the eyes as the eyes continued to watch. Eventually he stopped falling
from the tree, and hit the ground hard.
"Syvex, you alright?"
Syvex groaned and dragged himself from the ground. Before him stood another identical Shadow Serpent, but strangely wearing a Stratonian Alliance military uniform. His uniform identified him as "Martinov", the same name as the general of the Stratonian Alliance's military forces. However, before the name Martinov was an unreadable mess of lines.
"...General Martinov?"
"What is it, Syvex?"
Odd. The general had never called him "Syvex" before. It had always been "serpent" or just "bioweapon". Hearing an actual name was rather odd.
"Where are we, General?"
"What? You know where we are, we're in the
Operating Room 5 immediately."
Not this again. Another vivisection already? Syvex sighed. He was nothing more than a biology experiment to them, subject to their haphazard stabbing and prodding and extracting. After all, everything just grew back, there was no harm done!
Syvex slithered his way through the dim hallways to the operating room, finding Doctor Kjørsvik waiting for him. The balding old man scowled at the serpent, just as always.
"You're late, 384."
"Late? I came here as soon as I heard the message!"
"Really. That was half an hour ago, 384. Get on the table this instant so we can begin."
The door swished open. Inside he found himself already on the table, being operated on by a tall man in a labcoat with oversized goggles on his face. He immediately turned to Dr. Kjørsvik, but in his place stood a tall, horned humanoid with a multitude of eyes, her hands glowing with two distinct runes. A lone cable ran from the door into the infinite darkness beyond. Hebris stood still, silent, pointing out into the darkness. Syvex soon found himself in the middle of an endless stretch of cable, nothing to be seen in any direction.
Suddenly, Syvex caught sight of a faint humanoid figure off in the distance. He quickly took off toward the figure, its features become clearer and clearer by the second. On its face was a mask crafted into the perfect likeness of a spider's head, a mask that seemed almost familiar to the serpent. As he got closer, the figure began chuckling, then dropped into the infinite abyss. He had left behind a message for the serpent, however. Though Syvex could only read a select few words, the message carved into the cable with an incredibly sharp knife was immediately clear.
WAKE UP
All around Syvex, blue-green runes appeared in the sky - the same symbol repeated over and over, with no clue to its meaning. The message in the cable began to glow with the same unnatural, etheral light, a light which slowly spread, cracking apart the cable until it could no longer support its own weight. Syvex fell into infinity.
"Hmm?" The scientist still seemed a little out of it to Syvex, but at least he responded this time. Syvex noted that Riko had at some point lost the Endorphic Core as well. Perhaps the two were connected.
"Are you feeling alright now? Because I sort of need your help, and now would be a good time."
"What..." Riko winced a little and shook his head. "What do you need, exactly?"
Syvex held up his wine bottle, flashing its bright label of "Château de Afterparty" at the scientist.
"You need help with wine?"
"Wine? No no no, this is nothing like that. It's a bottle of... well, you weren't there in the tower back in Afterparty, but it's a liquid version of some kind of energy from there. Whatever it is, it brings back my shadow powers when I drink it, but it doesn't last long."
"And... what'd you want me to do about that?"
"Well, you had that stuff in that vial that did just about the same thing. Thought you could make the effects of this stuff permanent, maybe?"
"Look, I..." Riko trailed off for a moment, clearly unfocused. "I can't help you with that without GRIMACE's facilities."
"Well, that's just great. I'm guessing you can't just contact them or something."
As if on cue, Riko's radio crackled with a deep, Russian-accented voice. "31. This is Randolph Markovnikov. We're within range of the... zeppelin now. Are you in possession of the core?"
Riko started in surprise. "Er, I... No, sir, I lost it. It's on the zeppelin somewhere, sir."
"No matter. We'll send an operative to retrieve it at once. Now, then, 31. I assume you would prefer to come aboard than stay in this dinghy any longer?"
"Yes, sir."
"He's not the only one who'd like to leave, Rambo!"
Riko turned to face the serpent, managing to stumble on his way. "Sir, you'll have to ignore him, he's-"
"Who was that, 31?" the commander questioned.
"Oh, he's... He's a 'friend', I guess. Big shadow snake alien, another contestant in this 'battle'. He was weakened a while ago and wants our help to fix that."
"Bring him on, then. I'll have a security team ready to receive him. Stand by for transport."
"Transport? What's he mean by that?"
After a blinding flash of light which lasted for far too long, Syvex found himself in another room entirely. The cold, angular machines throughout the small, cramped room reminded Syvex of Interstice enough to make him shudder. Despite the death and danger of this battle, at least it had let him escape the laboratory. Unless he were to survive to the end. Would he just be sent back to Interstice? Was it his fate to either die or be pursued forever? Surely something else would come after. Surely he'd be able to pay attention when I am talking to you whoa wait what
Syvex immediately realized that another human, dressed in distinctly more scientist-like attire than Riko, had been talking to him since he arrived.
"I... er... hi," Syvex stammered. "Riko tell you about me?"
The scientist's brow furled, barely noticeable behind his oversized pair of mirrored goggles. "No, in fact, he didn't. He hasn't even said anything since you two got here. All I've heard was that some sort of large shadow snake needed medical help for some reason or another, and now you're here. I'm the doctor. Enough wasting time, let's go."
The tall, black-haired doctor immediately turned and left through the door, Syvex following behind, flanked by a number of guards. GRIMACE didn't want to take any chances, that was for sure. They traveled through an endless series of identical hallways and lifts, eventually coming up to yet another blank steel door. The doors silently swished open, revealing a dark, dreary operating room. Syvex shuddered further. He had a distinct hatred of operating rooms and an extreme distrust of doctors, and here both were at the exact same time.
"Alright, we're here. What was it that you needed, snake?"
Syvex held up the bottle, giving the doctor the same explanation he gave to Riko.
"I see. Although that doesn't exactly tell us much about what's in the bottle, I think we can manage. Get on the table."
Reluctantly, Syvex climbed onto the human-sized table, half of his body hanging off the end. They were going to help him, it would be fine, he would finally get his shadow powers back, he could trust Riko, he could trust this doctor, this doctor didn't have anything against him, this doctor certainly wouldn't just use him for research no that couldn't happen this wasn't like that laboratory this was different he would be fine he needed his powers restored right yes he did and this was the only chance he had to do that nothing bad would happen NOTHING WOULD GO WRONG AND
Syvex's frantic thoughts died away as the anesthesia took hold.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Subject 384."
"Huh? What?"
"Subject 384. It's time for testing."
"...Hikaru? What? No, I can't..."
"Subject 384. Testing will commence in ten seconds."
Dr. Hikaru's features remained stony, automated as he spoke. He was slowly enveloped by light, his features melting away into nothingness. Syvex inquisitively observed the testing room, but found most of it to be drenched in searing light.
"Testing will commence in 3... 2... 1... zero."
The lights shut off. Syvex wasn't in a testing room at all, he was just in a massive empty concrete chamber. No... not empty. In the far corner lay the huddled form of a young woman, no older than her mid-twenties. On closer inspection, her tattered clothes looked quite familiar to the serpent.
"Eureka?"
The woman looked up at Syvex, wide-eyed. She said nothing, her gaze fixed intently on the serpent, an expression of horror frozen on her face. Moments later, the intense lights came on again, and Eureka shrieked. Syvex blundered blindly through the white void, not able to find the source of the screams. He tried to call out in desperation, but no words escaped from his throat. The screams died out suddenly as the lights shut off. In Eureka's place, there lay only a large pile of clothes. Syvex approached the pile slowly, and
the shelling began. From the Empire base's numerous cannons, explosives of all sizes rained down upon the Stratonian task force. Syvex had to stop them. He propelled himself into the air with a series of portals, and launched himself in an arc over the base. He launched bursts of shadow at each cannon, managing to destroy them all. He attempted to open a portal to slow his descent on the other side, but his arms didn't respond. To his horror, his arms were gone completely.
Down, down, down he fell into the gaping chasm on the other side. Eyes stared at him from all sides, watching without care the snake's descent. Soon Syvex was falling up through the chasm, up and up and up past glowing blue runes which ran along the eyes as the eyes continued to watch. Eventually he stopped falling
from the tree, and hit the ground hard.
"Syvex, you alright?"
Syvex groaned and dragged himself from the ground. Before him stood another identical Shadow Serpent, but strangely wearing a Stratonian Alliance military uniform. His uniform identified him as "Martinov", the same name as the general of the Stratonian Alliance's military forces. However, before the name Martinov was an unreadable mess of lines.
"...General Martinov?"
"What is it, Syvex?"
Odd. The general had never called him "Syvex" before. It had always been "serpent" or just "bioweapon". Hearing an actual name was rather odd.
"Where are we, General?"
"What? You know where we are, we're in the
Operating Room 5 immediately."
Not this again. Another vivisection already? Syvex sighed. He was nothing more than a biology experiment to them, subject to their haphazard stabbing and prodding and extracting. After all, everything just grew back, there was no harm done!
Syvex slithered his way through the dim hallways to the operating room, finding Doctor Kjørsvik waiting for him. The balding old man scowled at the serpent, just as always.
"You're late, 384."
"Late? I came here as soon as I heard the message!"
"Really. That was half an hour ago, 384. Get on the table this instant so we can begin."
The door swished open. Inside he found himself already on the table, being operated on by a tall man in a labcoat with oversized goggles on his face. He immediately turned to Dr. Kjørsvik, but in his place stood a tall, horned humanoid with a multitude of eyes, her hands glowing with two distinct runes. A lone cable ran from the door into the infinite darkness beyond. Hebris stood still, silent, pointing out into the darkness. Syvex soon found himself in the middle of an endless stretch of cable, nothing to be seen in any direction.
Suddenly, Syvex caught sight of a faint humanoid figure off in the distance. He quickly took off toward the figure, its features become clearer and clearer by the second. On its face was a mask crafted into the perfect likeness of a spider's head, a mask that seemed almost familiar to the serpent. As he got closer, the figure began chuckling, then dropped into the infinite abyss. He had left behind a message for the serpent, however. Though Syvex could only read a select few words, the message carved into the cable with an incredibly sharp knife was immediately clear.
WAKE UP
All around Syvex, blue-green runes appeared in the sky - the same symbol repeated over and over, with no clue to its meaning. The message in the cable began to glow with the same unnatural, etheral light, a light which slowly spread, cracking apart the cable until it could no longer support its own weight. Syvex fell into infinity.