Emily was stunned when the floaty-orb-hologram thing called her by name, and even more puzzled when the door opened… She eyed the four-armed alien, and then the name he’d called the orbogram -- Cassius -- clicked. Things happened faster than she could process; Maldor snapped to action while memories came flooding back to her, full of doubt and possibilities. It was either highly fortuitous -- or incredibly unlikely -- that the first person they met had been a doctor on the Project. And conveniently the nicest one she’d ever met, and the most likely one she’d trust. If it was a test, they were going all-out this time.
Emily reached out with her thoughts; tried to make a connection…
She shook her head; it just wasn’t working right. She still had her wits, even without a solid read...and she’d have a read soon enough, even if it took a dozen tries. ”Are you with them?” She asked. Her voice was shaky, but quickly became stern. ”Tell me! Please… Are you still with them? Is this some kind of loyalty test? Or...or is this real? And if it is real, why were those people bringing us here, to you, mister potential asset..?”
To Cross, Smyrna replies "This was a test and you my friend have passed" She drops the vials back in her bag without looking, and goes back to work, picking over the refuse.
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"Loyalt- what? What have they been doing to you? No of course I'm not with them. And what people? I have no clue who you are talking about. You are the ones who showed up on my doorstep the day after the government facility was attacked. Now please get your friend off me and close the door before someone sees him and calls the cops." Jin explained, his voice conveying equal parts sincerity and confusion as he struggled with the smaller teen trying to shove the staff into his jugular.
Amaryst stared at the handprint while waiting for Korvan to reply. Breeding angry!
Her comm buzzed. Jin? That'll keep til this is done.
Nevertheless the buzz started her moving. She pulled her gun out of the holster, and holding it along her thigh, she approached the window next to the door in a low crouch. She flattened herself against the wall, her face a fraction of an inch from the real (real!) wood shingles.
She slowly raised her head to look inside.
Emily couldn’t trust words, the facility had no qualms about lying or twisting their words, but she trusted herself -- her feelings, her instincts. And it was becoming increasingly unlikely that any test would have gone on this long. ”Let him go, Mal.” she said. She pressed a button on the console, that looked like it might shut the door.
”Doctor Candy...er, Jin? Jin Larson?” She asked, looking around his place and trying to get her bearings. ”The facility was attacked. These people, they were trying to get us out…all of us. So, so many people died… They got us to a ship or something, out the window, but it crashed. Maldor and I, we got away, but those soldier guys didn’t survive the crash.” She gestured half-heartedly to the computer that Mal had. ”They had that on them. It said to come here. To Jin Larson, potential asset. Did… Did you know those people? Were you trying to get us out..? H-help us. We can’t go back there!”
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"So the attack was to free the Project's subjects? That is interesting." Jin thought aloud "Regardless, Though I don't know who these soldiers that saved you are I'm not going to just give the two of you back to the government. I've seen the sorts of things they do. Maybe whoever it was that marked me as a "potential asset" knew that." he concluded in a serious tone.
"The way they treated those kids was reprehensible and ill be damned before I let them do it again." Jin finished with conviction. "Now, can you introduce your friend here to me? And what is that tablet your friend has there?"
With Emily's approval of Jin, Maldor lowers the staff and holds out his hand in a conciliatory gesture. "I'm sorry, sir. We didn't know if this was another one of the combat training runs, or if we had really escaped that place. Either way, we are afraid of being sent back. I wasn't there in the early years - guess my time started with the Government Operatives Training program. It's been pretty...intense...so I hope you'll accept my apology."
Maldor sits down in a chair - collapses is a better description. He proceeds to describe the past several years to Jin, the medical procedures, the mental tests, the combat training, the mental combat training, the powers he had developed because of all that. Maldor even gives a small demonstration by taking a handful of food cubes from his backpack and causing them to hover above his hand, then slowly float above his head and take up a slow orbit like small moons to his head.
"Alright, Amaryst stand by." Korvan says, giving up on the trail for the moment to try and hack into the security system of the house.
Emily breathed easily as the tension settled some, trying to numb herself with a sense of calm. ”This is Maldor,” she answered, plainly. ”He’s a subject too, not an MLE kid like I am, they brought new people in after you left. More subjects. All new doctors. New tests, new guards...new shocks and needles...new everything.” She looked for a place to sit down, settling on the floor if need be, and pulled a pre-packaged nutrient rich food cube from the duffel. After half a night’s sleep and hours of escaping and walking, she started to realise how tired she was.
”They didn’t want toys or tools, they didn’t need an empath,” she added as she tore open the package and took a large bit of the soft, nearly flavorless cube of mush. ”They wanted a weapon. And they’re gonna want us back…”
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"That sounds ghastly. My work was meant to bridge the gaps between species not be used as a weapon. They won't be getting their hands on you if I can help it." he says with a determined expression as he cleared and sat on the office chair opposite of the couch the two were sitting on
"First thing, you'll need clothes. You uh.. Maldor was it? You can borrow some of mine, we will have to buy some for Emily." he says as he pulls up a report from this morning and casts it to the TV "They are looking for you, but not you specifically, so it shouldn't be that hard for you to blend in."
"You can stay here of course but it would probably be best if we all got off-planet. A friend of mine has a ship it's just a little... held up." he said as he turned and typed away at his computer a bit, messaging his parents to see if they could send some funds to help him to hire a bodyguard and a trip offworld.
"Now is there anything else you need you can think of? Oh actually if you don't mind follow me a moment I thought of something." he finishes as he jumps up from his seat and navigates the cluttered room towards the garage door, beckoning the kids to follow.
"Alright, Amaryst stand by." Korvan says, giving up on the trail for the moment to try and hack into the security system of the house.
...
Following Emily's example, Maldor also quickly consumes a food cube for some energy, then follows Jin.
Emily nodded along with everything that Jin said, but internally she was struggling to keep up. ’Off-planet..?’ she thought. She understood the concept, understood the difference between humans and aliens...but it had never struck her that she’d ever see anything like that herself.
Finishing her cube, she stashed the wrapper in the bag and got up to follow Jin. From the clutter she probably could have left the wrapper on the floor, unnoticed, but after years of cleanliness and sterile environments it felt wrong. ”Is all of this stuff yours?” she asked, realizing only afterwards that it was probably a foolish question.
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"Oh, yeah sorry, i don't really have people in this part of the house so my half-finished projects just tend to gather up a little" Jin explains as he ushered the two into the much more tidy garage, though really it seemed more like a lab, with tiled counters covered in scientific and medical equipment, including several opaque tanks of liquid of some kind, as well as a makeshift patient's table in the center of the room.
"Please if you would Emily, sit on the table. I am just going to run a basic medical scan to make sure you don't have anything dangerous in your system." Jin explained with perfect honesty, knowing Emily would probably be able to tell if it was otherwise and hoping to reassure her that it would be okay. "After Emily is finished, it will be your turn Maldor, i just want to see that you two are in good health. After all who knows what they've been pumping into you." he ends with a slight grimace.
"Cassius, in the meantime try to get ahold of Amaryst and see if she has any ideas of how we can get ahold of her ship." he said aloud, as a holoprojector on a nearby table flared to life with the AI's avatar. "Yes Dr. Larson, i will also monitor the medical scanner and report anything of worry." the chipper AI replied.
"Good, good, alright, lets begin shall we?" Jin finished, gesturing to the table for Emily to sit.
(Assuming they go along with it)
Emily felt a twinge of dread as she looked around the next room. She’d been examined and operated on enough to know what most of the equipment was for, and didn’t even want to guess what the things she didn’t recognize were meant to do. Ever instinct told her not to go through with what Jin asked, but she was more accustomed to trusting her feelings rather than any knee-jerk reactions. Once again she opened her mind.
It may have just been the stress, or she was just tired, but Emily still couldn’t get a good read on the doctor. And she knew trying to read Cassius was pointless… She eyed the table warily. ”No,” she said. ”Sorry, but no. No tests.”
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"It's just a simple scan but... given what you've been through i understand. Well, given what you've told me you are probably pretty tired, i can clear the couch for you and set up a small place to sleep if you like?" Jin said with a twinge of compassion in his voice and a look of concern. "What of you Maldor, will you let me do a checkup or would you like to sleep as well?"
Emily heard the tone of Jin's voice, and deeply wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt...but recent events filled her thoughts with paranoia and unwarranted fears. Emily shook her head, and opened her mind again.
Finally feeling a rush of emotion, she breathed softly and took a moment to process it all; everything he felt about her, about Maldor...even the familiar sentiment he felt for Cassius. "Okay," she said at last, and sat herself on the table. "Just do what you need to do. And...thank you for helping us."
Jin, a moment after you send a message to your parents, a pop-up appears in your heads-up display. The message is an automated response from Comcast Connection Services.
'Your request to SEND A DATA PACKAGE OUT-OF-SYSTEM has failed. The destination is a distance of THIRTEEN DRIFT BEACONS and the charge is FOUR HUNDRED AND ELEVEN GALACTIC CREDITS. We are sorry, but your financial information has been declined. Please try again with a different institution.'
- - - - -
Korvan sits down on the ground to better concentrate and begins to hack into Amaryst's home target. A quick address and the name of the owner is all he needs to identify the home system. Being a professional burglar, the rudimentary firewalls on the woman's home system are nothing to Korvan. He is in, and has basic access to the house's systems.
It has security at the doors and windows (in order to set off an alarm if the house is ever broken into), but no in-house camera system. Korvan can tell there are two webcams networked into the system, but he can't tell where.
- - - - -
Looking into the back door, all that Amaryst can see is a mud room. A shoe rack has some shoes, there's a pair of dirty rubber gardening gloves hanging from a wall, a coat rack has a few coats, etc. There is another door on the other side of the small room. The door's old-fashioned handle has another bloodstain on it.
The work proceeds smoothly for about ten minutes. Rex and the crew have gotten about half of the various goods onto the flatbed truck. The second engine has been loaded onto a couple of the dollies, and some of the loose components are being picked up, when a roaring noise suddenly fills your ears (or aural receptors, as the case may be). The crash site is suddenly lit up with a bright spotlight from above. Looking through the glare, one can see a police hovercraft, turbofans blaring. Its red and blue lights are on, and a loudspeaker voice issues from it as you see its side panels open and lines descend to the ground.
"Damn! Smyrna, you bring your ride?" Cross said, cops were not gentle with the heavily auged and an arrest could be costly for him. Rex might be able to pay off the cops but that might also leave him high and dry. Discretion was the better part of valor. His hand strayed towards his piece but pulling on cops was practically a death sentence and something he was not prepared to do just yet regardless.
"S@!$! Yeah, follow me dude" Smyrna calls as she starts sprinting towards her primer black Harley.
While moving, Smyrna hurriedly barks "Status report Tay!" Two beady eyes pop out of her bag and start rotating.
"You're aging badly." Replies a distinguished, female voice from Smyrna's bag.
Maldor shared Emily's reaction to Jin's suggestion for an examination. "No. I can you assure you that neither Emily nor I harbor any disease or poison, and we are both as healthy as could be expected after surviving an escape from a secret military experiment station. I appreciate your skills as a scientist, but I have certain healing skills and abilities, so I know that we are fine."
But after saying that, he is surprised at Emily's sudden change of heart about the exam. But Emily's slight nod to Maldor and a quick point to her head made Maldor understand. She had been able to 'sniff' him out and must have felt that the doc was safe. That alone made the young man trust the four-armed scientist, but he still didn't need the man's medical attention.
But as Jin prepared for the examination, Maldor suddenly had a sickening idea. "Dr. Larson - will this medical examination get to the net?! You know the station is looking for us - I bet they have all kinds of AI tracking-bots scouting the web for tell-tale signs. And seeking medical help is the first place they cover! Are you secure?"
Smyrna and Cross sprint away from the wreck, and so do the rest of the toughs. Rex clambers into the big truck, and the toughs run to make it before he begins to speed away.
It takes a moment to reach the motorcycle and start it up.
Four police officers land on the ground, unfold contraptions that they brought with them and clamber on top. The contraptions are revealed as small, portable hover-bikes. Two of them speed towards Smyrna and Cross and two of them towards Rex's truck.
Finding her motorcycle, an antique compared to what Cross was used to, he slowed to a stop. "You or me, lady?" Being rather attached to his own ride, he knew it would be incredibly rude to hop on and take control without her permission. He was, however, the more experienced at this sort of thing.
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"Why would it be going on the net? I'm under no obligation to share my information with anyone, least of all the earth government." he says as with a few taps on a control panel a machine overhead did a quick medical scan of Emily. "Hmm, come to think of it i might technically be obligated, I haven't really checked Earth laws, but given the kind of people who generally come to me for medical help the point is moot." he thought aloud as he went to a nearby table and pulled a box out of one of the drawers.
"You can hop off that table now. And see what i said? Just a quick painless scan." Jin said as he pulled a cherry red sucker out of the box and offered it to Emily "What was that you called me earlier? Doctor Candy?" he added with a smirk.
"Now it's your turn Maldor, just hop on up, it won't take but a moment. Afterwards you two can get some rest while i try to figure out how we can proceed."
"Alright, I'm in. Not much in terms of surveillance equipment available just a couple of webcams, and I'm not real sure where those are at." Korvan says to Amaryst.
"Security system is still armed. I can shut it down and unlock the doors if you'd like."
"You're a better driver and you're also not fitting your two-ton ass on the rear seat!"
Smyrna expertly crosses three sparking wires hidden in a compartment under the right handle bar, then she hits the starter with a wrench and the contraption blazes to life. Smyrna then steps up and balances on the rear axle.
"I'll stay low, get our weight better distributed."
Cross shakes his head and gingerly clambers onto the device. Not wanting to flood the internal combustion engine and blow them up or something, he takes it slow at first, getting to know this cycle. Under any other circumstances it might have been relaxing. Part of him wanted to tear out of there, what with the police on them and Smyrna touching him but he had exactly zero experience with this antique and would rather not get them both killed.
round 1
Smyrna and Cross clamber onto Smyrna's bike and start it up. The bike rumbles to life, and Cross begins to accelerate.
Meanwhile, Rex's flatbed roars and takes off the opposite direction. The police hovercraft and two of the police motorbikes take off after it, while the other two follow Cross and Smyrna.
Both police officers that chase Cross and Smyrna wear reflective helmets as well, and armored police uniforms. They begin to accelerate, getting within spitting distance just as Smyrna's bike takes off. Each policeman pulls a sidearm out of a thigh holster as they draw closer.
Ahead of the pair is an intersection. It looks like the light is about to turn, and it is about to fill with cars. Otherwise, the road ahead goes straight for awhile.
Smyrna, still staying low, with one hand grabs a metallic sphere with a protruding pin from a side pocket on her large, black, patchwork purse. "Cross, I only got one sticky grenade and I'd like to not use it until I have to."
From Smyrna's bag, eight metal tentacles protrude and raise a large, obtuse head made of scrap with oblong, rotating eyes. A metal octopus slithers its way onto Cross's shoulder, wrapping its tentacles around his torso to secure itself. In a confident alto, it sighs "Oh thank god, finally something interesting"
Emily slipped off the table and gladly accepted the offered lollipop, grabbing it like it was a priceless treasure. The wrapper was off and the candy in her mouth almost instantly. She was much calmer, now, and offered Maldor a quiet, assuring nod. ”Itsh awight,” she said, popping the sucker out for a moment. ”Jin will help us, we can trust him. It’s just a scan, and it’ll help him help us. Okay?”
"Alright, I'm in. Not much in terms of surveillance equipment available just a couple of webcams, and I'm not real sure where those are at." Korvan says to Amaryst.
"Security system is still armed. I can shut it down and unlock the doors if you'd like."
"If you can access those webcams, tell me if you see people or bodies. That's better than nothing. The client gave me the alarm code. I'd better use that and minimize your e-trail. I'm going in."
Amaryst punches the code into the box at the door. The armor gloves force her to be very careful, lest she accidentally press an adjacent button. She delicately opens the door, trying to avoid disturbing the blood. Easing the door open she looks around and steps into the mudroom, which she crosses carefully, trying to see everything and avoid any blood.
Deep breath, gun held pointing upward at shoulder height, she double checks the safety to make sure it's off, but keeps her trigger finger laid along the barrel. Another deep breath and and eases open the inner door, again trying to avoid the blood.
"No need for that, lady, killing pigs only makes the rest angry," Cross said, then decided to see just what the Harley could do. His whole body was tense from having not one but two people touching him and screamed for the release of speed. He gritted his teeth, mentally, at the thought and said, "Hang on to me," before opening up the Harley's engine.
The beastly thing surged forwards, roaring like some prehistoric beast and rising up onto a single wheel for a breath stealing moment. The wheel came down and they jetted off in a cloud of smoke, shooting through the intersection and nearly becoming hood ornaments in the process.
"Got it. Webcams coming online now." A moment later Korvan says in a faux-offended tone, "Wait...you think I actually leave an e-trail?"
"Wasn't it you who told me there's always a trail?" Amaryst snorts a little.
"I am through the cloak room. Heading into the house proper. I hope this search does not result in a corpse."
Korvan laughs, "Well...that's almost what I said, I said most slags doing this kind of work don't take the time to erase their e-trail. Mistakes I made when I was young and stupid. I'm much more careful these days." He says while splitting his display between the webcams coming online.
The webcams come online... there's one in what appears to be a den or computer room, and a second that looks like it's on the TV in the living room. No creatures in either, although it looks like the couch has been slept on, judging from the blankets and pillow.
Amaryst crosses the mudroom and gingerly turns the handle on the inner door. It leads into a large, fully stocked kitchen. To the left is a doorless doorway that leads to a dining room decorated with a large ovoid table covered with a soft tablecloth. The kitchen extends to the right, and there is another door on the left side of the kitchen.
Directly adjacent to the dining room is a large living room, with a massive 80 inch screen hanging from the wall to the left. A bathroom is on the left wall of the living room. The front door is on the other side of the living room, and a staircase leading up to the second floor is on the right side of the living room.
Cross revs the engine on the motorcycle, speeding through the intersection. The two motorcycle policemen try to keep up, weaving through traffic with their sirens blaring.
While they aren't as daring as Cross, they manage to catch up with him just a few moments after he leaves them behind.
Up ahead, the straight road ends. There is a left turn, and a right turn. Cross also sees something exploitable - some wooden boards conveniently half-loaded into a big truck. Above the truck is a parking garage.
When her bike pulls up on one wheel, Smyrna holds on tight to cross, and screams "Hell yeah, this is how Bronx do!" After she composes herself, Smyrna states matter of factly "Don't worry, this is strictly nonlethal, attacking cops would be suicide."
Just then, the drone on Cross's shoulder rears up two tentacles and fires a shot of searing energy at one of the officers from where its beak would be.
"G&~#~$n it! What the hell is wrong with you Tay?! Smyrna cries.
The drone rights itself and replies "Sorry, in movies you always shoot at the bikes. Recalculating."
Eyeing the boards, Cross decides in a moment just what to do. With a last glance at the cops, he hunkers down close to the body of his borrowed ride. Picking his moment, he throws his weight back and then forward again, giving the front tire the little boost it needed to bite down on the wood.
The Harley is only on the boards for a split second before the three of them are in the air. For just one exultant moment, Cross experiences free fall, he lets go of the handlebars and holds on to the Harley with his thighs as he spreads his arms. His clunky humanoid body weighing nothing and even the reflexive tension he feels at being touched fading away. Part of him is back in deep space hurtling through the canyons of a water ice asteroid, chasing Gauge and Holo in their hardened vacuum frames, tempting fate.
Then the back tire touches down on the parking garage and he half bounces back into position, the memory fleeing as his hands grip the bars again. Without losing any time readjusting, he has them cutting through the garage at frankly inadvisable speeds.
Maldor looks at the doctor, then looks at Emily and sees her nodding, then shrugs his shoulders and hops up on the examination table. "I suppose there's no harm in a simple scan. But I assure you that I have no afflictions. I could feel it if I did. Or if Em did, for that matter. Part of my 'changes' thanks to the experiments..."
After the scan, he says, "See? Told you. But...thanks. We could use your help to hide from the capture teams I'm sure are still looking for us. We just need to stay hidden for a bit and maybe they'll figure we made it out of here with the rescuers."
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"You are welcome, i am happy to help. And you can have one of the suckers too if you like, given what i'm reading here i'd be willing to bet you've developed a sweet tooth too after the gaining those fancy tricks." Jin says, holding out a sucker to Maldor and then leading the two back to his cluttered living room and gestured for them to sit on the couch. "Long story short like you said you are healthy but a tad malnourished, those powers of yours probably make you pretty hungry right? Given how calorie dense those food cubes are they must be consuming a lot of energy."
"Now, you found me using some sort of tablet yes? I saw you holding it earlier before the, uh, staff was introduced to my jugular." he says, sitting back into his desk chair and rubbing his neck slightly with one hand as he stretches another out towards Maldor. "Would you mind handing it here? I may be able to get some information about it's owners so we can both figure out something about what's going on."
"Amaryst, webcams are online. Looks like one is in a computer room, and a second that looks like it's on the TV in the living room. Side note, looks like someone has been sleeping on the couch. You seeing anything of note?"
Amaryst steps cautiously into the kitchen, and looks around. She gives Korvan a carefully quiet play by play.
"I'm looking at the kitchen, then a dining room, then a living room. Your couch is likely in there. What color is it?"
Then she eases forward to peek carefully into the dining room.
Smyrna's drone fires a laser at one of the pursuing cops, scoring a blow on the cop's bike - it sears a line into the hoverbike, causing a spray of sparks. A couple of hits like that may disable such a bike, but it keeps going.
Knowing that it may be their only chance to keep up with Cross and Smyrna, the cops gun it towards the wooden ramp and the parking garage, trying their best to keep up.
The first cop careens onto the ramp, flying up into the parking garage. The cop on the first bike sees Cross speeding away, and tries to keep up. Meanwhile, the cop on the second bike tries to go up the ramp, but it collapses under him as he does so... The cop falls off of his bike, crashing into the truck.
The first cop revs the electric engine on his hoverbike and takes off after Cross and Smyrna. The faster acceleration on his bike allows him to keep up with the pair as both bikes drift around corners on the way down to the lower floor of the parking garage, on the other side of the city block.
Ahead, the exit of the parking garage looms, although Cross could instead lead the cop on a wild chase around the lot and maybe exit on another side, hoping that the cop might mess up and crash into another car.
- - - - -
Korvan sees no bloodstains on the couch, although its color matches the color of the couch that Amaryst sees. Checking in the sink of the house reveals no evidence of food-prep. Amaryst is able to see a blood trail. It consists of blood drops on the carpet, and bloody handprints on the wall, and it leads across the living room and into the bathroom, and then back across the living room and up the stairs.
- - - - -
Jin hacks into the small tablet that Maldor brought with him. It appears to be a simple personal commlink unit, carried by some unknown party. It is currently on a maps app that identifies your house address as "Jin Larson, potential asset". How do you want to utilize the commlink?
Cross lets them come even for a moment. Pig or no, it took a pair of clankers to follow him up a ramp like that. Was there another soul like him behind that police issue helmet? Probably not but respect where it was due, this guy was nearly as good as him. Cross gave him a salute that was entirely earnest and took the next turn.
The cop's ride might have had better acceleration but Cross was intent on making up the difference with raw skill. He took the turns in the narrow confines of the garage at dangerous speeds, cornering hard and keeping an eye open for the exit. Staying inside the garage would give air units and similar a chance to catch up and get a read on him. He was not about to let that happen.
Making the Harley roar, he cuts out of the garage hard.
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Jin tries to access prior communications, contacts, and any other identifiable data on the device (after all, surely he isn't the ONLY one that the Map app could have been made to point to?). Maybe the notes app had some information about the raid. He's really looking for any leads he can scavenge from the thing.
Emily sat on the couch, patiently waiting for Mal and Jin to work with the device. She didn't know that much about computers, really -- her small terminal was easy to use, and only had 'approved' media installed. She tucked her legs up underneath her and decided to shut her eyes for a bit. The events of the morning had been tiring, though she doubted she would really sleep...but the day wasn't done yet, and even a few minutes of rest was better than none at all.