"Booker. As you should be aware, I am on the inspection team. In addition to our regular rounds, I received a missive from Dr. Hale in Procurement to check on the lab equipment." She begins to enter without invitation.
I don't think you need to roll. See what you can see.
Frank nods and moves toward the bed where the girl lies;
"You able to move? Do I need to free you?"
The woman shakes her head sadly, "Sorry, can't. Legs don't work. Oh, no. I see what you are thinking. They are terrible people, but they didn't do this. This is all natural. The rest of it, well. If you can turn the gamma off I could show you."
Dottie enters, given apparently little opposition from Booker. She looks around. "What do you do here, Booker?"
Frank nods, a fleeting moment of relief that this place is not responsible for the woman's circumstances.
"No problem. I can lift you free with these.."
He allows his coils to slip free;
"I'm... Constrictor.. one of the good guys."
The room is a long low rectangle, as befits a lab built into a shipping container. There is nothing like a clean room or PPE. Where the walls meat the ceiling, there are rectangular boxes that glow a dim green. The room is otherwise washed with clean white light. At the end opposite Dottie there is something like an evil medspa chair, with straps for securing legs, arms, head, and torso. There fridges for tissue samples, and others that hold a variety of glass vials of colored liquids. There are microscopes, large digital displays, and banks of computers, desks, work tables, and even an old fashioned set of filing cabinets.
Booker winces at the question, "I am chief analyst and diagnostician. I process samples from the deposits and provide an initial analysis before they are sent off to the full scale labs. Also the occasional field medic duties for the crew. All pretty standard stuff..."
Booker is not being at all forthcoming. He isn't sure what you know or are supposed to know.
Frank nods, a fleeting moment of relief that this place is not responsible for the woman's circumstances.
"No problem. I can lift you free with these.."
He allows his coils to slip free;
"I'm... Constrictor.. one of the good guys."
"You are going to take us out of here, for sure? I didn't expect to ever leave here alive."
Frank nods;
"Absolutely Ma'am. One of my friends onboard knows Captain America! Doesn't get more heroic than that!"
He inwardly winches at the stretching of the truth... but knows reassuring these wards of Roxxon is paramount to keeping them calm, and them all getting off the rig in one piece.
Keep 'em calm Frank. No panic... Just hope Dottie isn't decorating upstairs with the boffins... least not yet.
Sliding his coils under the woman he smiles reassuringly then nods;
"You ready? Am gonna lift you and move you outside the cell okay."
The woman nods.
Dottie gives the slightest of nods, perhaps approving? of how he replies. She looks around, simply absorbing what she can. She looks at computers, items on shelves, as though she is checking perhaps inventory, perhaps whether some unknown standard is being set. She looks at contents of the tissue samples fridge through the clear glass door (not actually opening it) as though she is checking milk for expiry dates. She wants to see a few things--how easy it could be to stop their experiments for one, but also if there is any radiation controls. Their friends at the university will be days if not weeks from making their gamma trap. She wonders at the possibility of--understanding it comes with massive risks--abusing such controls to disrupt the likes of the smug Spot-maker she had just met.
She's also just looking to see if anyone writes their passwords on sticky notes next to their monitors because humans are humans even in high security evil mastermind labs.
She stays silent. At worst, it keeps her from implicating herself. At best, the silence makes Booker uncomfortable and he starts talking more.
Frank nods back, coils encircling the woman and lifting her free.
He moves backward towards the door, hailing out over his shoulder;
"Hey kiddo! How's it going there? We've got company..."
Dottie finds a console dedicated to something labelled Y-protocol, and since she is looking for radiation and gamma, it isn't hard for her to connect that Y looks a lot like some forms of the Greek letter Gamma. There are gamma emitters in something called the "Hab Pods 1-8," lab pods, elevator, and Storage 4 and Storage 6, and for this lab.
"So, uh, is there anything in particular I can help you find?" Definitely nervous.
Frank nods back, coils encircling the woman and lifting her free.
He moves backward towards the door, hailing out over his shoulder;
"Hey kiddo! How's it going there? We've got company..."
"Is no good. Door still close. No good."
She memorizes the username "DJBooker" and the password "Thor$Thunder."
Based on what the guards said and understanding Duke said subjects were being contained here, Dottie figures messing with the settings on said console will make something happen. If not something helpful, at least something interesting. Containment for the subjects is also likely where Frank was sent. Of course, if she hit the switches in the wrong way, she might accidentally kill him, but that was better than leaving him in their clutches, right?
"Now that you mention it, I need to look at the inventory log from..." she names a specific, recent date. "Could you look that up for me?" She smiles at the inevitable hesitation. "I appreciate your caution, and I'll be sure to make note of it in my report. You know as well as I that if I wasn't supposed to be looking at such things, I'd not be able to make heads or tails of the PO numbers anyway."
If he turns away, sufficiently distracted, she will hit the switches for the hab and lab pods and the elevator (using Booker's login if needing authorization).
Frank's world is suddenly bathed in GREEN LIGHT. The two girls scream and writhe in pain. The Russian falls to the floor, the other is held in Frank's coils, so she stays put, but she convulses. He eyes roll back in her head.
A by now familiar dark energy crackles and arcs out of the girls, crawling across the ceiling the floor, Frank and his coils. Quite the light, err, dark show.
Dottie knew she might not figure the right direction in which to flip the switches, but when she sees "Gamma rays increased to maximum" light up on the console's display, her eyes nonetheless widen. Sorry, Frank!
She quickly slides the controls in the other direction (. Why aren't these labeled? What kind of fool scientist doesn't label their dangerous radiation emitters? As she watches the emitter signals shift to a different readout. There. Hopefully he's only slightly sterilized. Stepping away from the console, she watches through the corner of her eye for any further results, while also trying to remain alert for what Booker does next.
Booker frowns, "Hey, careful with those. Very dangerous stuff, there."
Frank's jaw sets as the girls both scream in pain...
Unsure what to do or how to shield them, but keen not to be in the proximity of the dark force, he moves quickly from the cell out to where the little Russian girl writhes.
Still holding one in his coils, he stoops to try and shield the other with his armoured body.
Once the green light dims, the girls regain their composure. As the light fades, the Russian woman smiles, "Let us out before they know we can."
She reaches her hand out toward the inner door and a spike of the dark energy leaps out. The door is bent inward, but not yet broken.
_____________________________________________
Up above, in Dottie's lab, monitors flare to life. On the screen: "Security breach in the Hab Pods. Initiate Gamma precautions." And beneath the overlaid warnings, footage of Frank in his Constrictor outfit, carrying one woman and behind another.
Dottie turns around to look at Booker, as she surreptitiously sweeps her hand behind her to strike the power button at the base of the monitor.
"You don't think I know that?
Booker grimaces, "I'm sure you know, but we can't be too careful. The things we are dealing with out here...dangerous, you know?"
Things like those girls with Frank?
In truth, she was torn. She was not planning on a rescue mission. Especially of people likely given powers from literally the darkest of sources, even if against their will. Nonetheless, Booker's choice of words prickled at her.
Dottie tilts her head. "I'm curious. These 'things.' Do you enjoy dealing with them? I mean, how's a guy like you get a job like this?" She moves a little closer to him.
Frank nods as the door buckles;
"Okay. We got this...
Gently laying down his charge, the enforcer turns his coils onto the rent and wracked door, seeking to flay them apart;
Frank rips the thick steel door open, revealing a shaft reaching both up and down. There is no elevator here, but there is a ladder for emergency situations. The shaft drops vertiginously, hundreds of feet. Above, it is probably a 200 foot climb to the top of the shaft.
Dottie tilts her head. "I'm curious. These 'things.' Do you enjoy dealing with them? I mean, how's a guy like you get a job like this?"
"I did an internship with Roxxon during my junior year at Empire State. Started out in Petrochem, was identified for a program in what they called 'weird matter,' stuff at the cutting edge of physics and engineering. Had to go sideways to learn some of the bio stuff, then straight out of college into Dr. Darque's work. She taught me everything I know. The work is hard, and potentially dangerous, but the things we could do with it. Think of it. Limitless energy, the end of war. It's worth it."
Head tilt. "How do we go from whatever goes on in that chair to a limitless energy source? Are we using people as batteries?"
She gets a little closer.
Booker is increasingly at ease. He seems to have decided that you are someone to be trusted, and perhaps he has been without a confidant here on the platform for a long time.
He give the chair a sideways glance, and a wince. "Yes, well, that is unfortunate, but for the greater good, right? But no, not batteries. We don't need batteries. The dark stuff doesn't need a storage vessel. But our observations show that it is much easier to manipulate it with these organic 'interfaces' if you will. They are more like transitors than batteries. That's a good metaphor. We aren't at the level of development of microchips, but further along than vacuum tubes. Those early experiments were like the vacuum tubes. And we are just on the cusp. It is unfortunate that individuals have to suffer. But surely the needs of the many..."
Dottie's plans and thought processes screech to a halt and do a 180. Her heart starts pounding.
"If someone was exposed to the... experimental energy source. Say even it was... injected into them and removed. Even if they manifested no... aftereffects apart from ordinary trauma. Would they still serve as... some kind of... antenna?
In the back of her mind she's still waiting for alarms to blare or otherwise a need to make her exit and do something about witnesses... but bigger problems... and opportunities... present themselves.
"We really don't have enough case studies to know for sure, but the stuff tends to either kill or alter those exposed to it directly, without a mitigating organic interface. Those alterations are highly varied of course. So there probably would be aftereffects, at least based on our other cases."
"Not enough?" She shakes her head. "Never mind, I know that's beyond my pay grade." She chuckles nervously. "I do need to confirm that what's supplied to prevent accidental exposure is being used properly and isn't degrading. I mean," She spins her hand in the air. "We are in a converted shipping container in the ocean, after all." She gives him a weak smile. "And we wouldn't want anything to happen to you, would we?"
Never mind she might be moving toward and around him to divert his eyes away from the console and toward waste disposal...
"The material is handled by the two doctors in charge, mostly, and always if it is interacting with biological assets. I run tests on whatever comes up from the well using these isolation hoods, which have category 5 containment. Everything in storage is below the waterline, and of course the biological assets are as well."
Frank pauses, looking down then up.
"Good news an' bad news girls. Good news is there's a ladder going up. Bad news it looks about 200 odd feet to the top..."
He mulls the situation.
"I can likely hold you both in a coil, but then climbing myself will be too tough."
Frank nods toward the younger girl;
"You manage to climb yourself? If not I'll help you up first, then come back. Am hoping topside we've got friends an' no resistance left...
He flashes a hard smile at the girls, hoping his words instills in them hope...
"You manage to climb yourself? If not I'll help you up first, then come back. Am hoping topside we've got friends an' no resistance left...He flashes a hard smile at the girls, hoping his words instills in them hope...
The blonde stretches carefully to reach the ladder and begins to ascend.
Frank follows up the ladder, the other woman wrapped in a coil.
The progress is slow but steady
She smiles, warmly, but there's a tightness at the edge of her face. She places her hand on his shoulder collegially. "You know, I've spent my entire life being a 'biological asset.'" And then as he's likely looking at her hand, or at her face, she angles her foot behind his knee and attempts to shove him into the incinerator chute.
"Turns out that makes it real easy to do terrible things. But, you know, the needs of the many..."
Dottie sweeps the scientist's legs out from under him as she propels him into the incinerator shaft. He doesn't even have time to scream, just enough to utter a "Whaa?!" before he disappears, the cover of the shaft returning to its place and shutting off anything further.
At that moment alarms blare in the lab. Dottie quickly realizes that the alarms indicate a zero matter exposure in the elevator shaft... The security camera displays shift automatically to show her what is happening.
What is happening:
The small blonde Russian girl make her way up the ladder with relative ease ahead of Frank. Frank moves somewhat more slowly under the weight of the other woman.
Above them all, a flat circular plane of darkness fills the elevator shaft above you. Something dark lowers itself slowly from the darker darkness, and dark matter peels away from the humanoid form to reveal Dr. Ohn, hanging from tendrils of Darkforce. He scowls, "That's far enough, Constrictor."
Frank frowns, and curses silently under his breath.
Keep it together Frank. We got precious cargo
Constrictor's jaw sets as he calls out defiantly;
"Ohnn. You here to make me another offer Doc? Or drop me to somewhere else? Regardless I ain't got the time to parley..."
Dottie looks upward as the alarms blare and turns the security monitors back on to see the confrontation unfolding. "Ah, there we go." She looks on the labels on the security monitor to figure out where on the map this elevator shaft might be.
"Hang on, Frank." She pulls the pen out of her pocket that Duke supplied her with () and points it around the room, clicking, especially looking at the torture chair and making sure to get Roxxon logos. She moves quick, not wanting to take too much time, but some proof of what Roxxon is doing may come in handy.
She then grabs a silvery suit folded along the lab materials labeled "0Matter Shielding" and puts it on. If there's two more she grabs them and shoves them into her field bag, and indeed if there's something that looks like a carrying case for lab material, she shoves her whole field bag into that.
If Booker's security pass/ID fell off in the shoving or otherwise any sort of spare key card can be found (), she will grab that as well.
And then it's off to the races. Which is to say, the elevator shaft.
Ohnn replies to Frank, "No offer this time. You are at the bottom of a very dangerous well, and no one is coming to save you. Leave these two behind or I flood the elevator shaft with 40 degree seawater. If you don't drown, you'll die of hypothermia in about 10 minutes. The top of this shaft is sealed. You have no way out."
Frank eyes the dangerous Doc;
"Why would you do that Doc? You took the time to experiment on 'em... don't think you'll leave such precious commodities behind..."
he then whispers an aside to the woman he carries;
"I need you to hang onto the ladder by yourself for a minute... can you do that?"