[IC] Trespassers of the Multiverse: Director's Cut

[Sutoratosu]

Before the vision, Lucille had already been far into another ritual, putting the last touches on the fusion before the images were suddenly broadcast right into her mind. Even as it happened though, she managed to re establish a firm mental hold on the slipping spell, right before things could go critical, and put all the peices that had begun to deviate from the design back into proper order....

 

well, most of them.

 

She only laughed as the first scene played out- most of the terminology thrown about besides the term "Tinker" was absolutely foreign to her, and therefore she ignored most of it aside from the parts which directly mentioned her- and.... oh by the mavens, how they underestimated just what she could do. Already, she'd made immortal life, made life that would someday in the far future be sapient, fixed time-warping metal constructs, recreated restricted plant species from mere concepts alone... and a host of other things... and she had not even demonstrated once how destructive just one of her conjured blades of pure sound could be. Though her outburst in the lab may have been a bit... foolish, there had still been some truth to it.

       None of them on that world understood the true, and terrifying, potential of the Thaum, even if the man named "Jesus" had possibly brought it from Arganor to their world long ago, or somehow replicated it on his own, even if the one known as Armsmaster made use of the same basic principles as college trained Alchemist from both the days of old and new. That much was painfully clear as she watched her designation. 

 

For she knew back home, there would be those already who would call for her death warrant to be signed, for the old laws she had broken in letting the little dragon live... and in giving Astra the potential to someday have a rational, independent mind of her own.

 

Most of what followed that first part, she didn't really care or didn't even have the context to fully understand. And that world- aside from what she had learned of the ancient thaumist called "Jesus" and of how much indviduals like Armsmaster and his organization underestimated the type of unfathomable knowledge lying right under their noses -had been only of passing interest to her at best. Anything in it not directly related to either of those two subjects, she saw no point wasting the energy to scry things about.

 

By the time it was over, the Ritual she'd performed had long since been done, evidenced by the warm little lifeform that now snuggled up against her chest, the sensation of sinfully smooth, almost polished scales meeting her hand as she reached up to pet the newly altered dragon. Astra gave a content pur, nuzzling the girl's hand. Meanwhile the young dragon- the newborn, on her shoulder squeaked in a rather rhythmic sequence, as if he were mimicking his mother's laughter just now. Lucille reached up and stroked his chin, to which he squeaked with approval.

      She took a moment to scry Astra and ensure everything was alright, and while she did, the young serpentine dragon seemed to snap his claws, and lucille felt an odd surge of intent that faded just as quickly as it had come. Whatever he'd done, she wasn't entirely sure of, given only her periphery senses had caught it in the first place... she made a mental however to try and look into later.

 

For now, it seemed that.... Astra had turned out better than she thought, given how the vision had come in and interrupted her work...

Spoiler

(7, 16) (49) The result is a Baby Quantum Gold Dragon, It's scales are made from gold wrenched into the shape of circuits, intended to exploit the flow of time itself.

 

(Circumstance) (79) Shit, the combination of Time's Wisdom and Gold's Nobility give this dragon the potential for intelligent thought too, though it's clear this will occur at a point in it's development long after Lucile has died of old age, as it is now.  Occassionally, messages from it's future self flow over it's scales, before flowing back into scribbles and nothing, they are written in languages not known to men.

It has gained a hunger for Gold and Jewels.

 

It has gained Antibreath, on command, it's mouth opens, revealing a black glowing object, everything exposed has it's energy travel backwards chronologically.  The effect is weak, but most objects turn monochrome in it's area of effect, quickly being overcome with chill and stillness.  Objects left in this field long enough become permenantly monochrome and without energy in an inexplicably powerful way.  Doing so seems to nourish this dragon in the same way consuming gold might.
Deals 1d4 Damage to all targets exposed per turn of exposure.  Deals an additional Syn Damage if the target is high energy, such as a fire or light creature.

Though...oh well, at this point, she'd already made it clear she would not uphold the old laws regarding the creation of Sapient Life. Besides, it was obviously going to take several human lifetimes before Astra even fully realized that potential for rational thought. Long after lucille herself was already dead, chances were. She was a whelp for the time being, and she would probably stay that way for a long while, given the glimpses Lucille received into her life cycle. At the moment though, her mind was still very much beastlike... and the bond between remained as it had before. 

     "Well, you'll definitely grow up someday..." the girl muttered "chances are I'm gonna be long before that, but..."

 

In response, Astra merely flapped her wings, shimmering with golden light from her scales, as she hopped out of lucille's lap and onto one of the seats. Lucille's mind slowly returned to the matter of just what the dragonling had done when it snapped it's fingers, before a familiar voice called from the back of the voice...

Quote

"Does anyone have any medical training or magic that I could get assistance from? Or information on parahuman powers?  Help would be appreciated, since I want to do what I'm planning safely."

"huh?" She turned her head in harry's direction, before getting up. Once more, another mental was made, as she strode over

 

"I don't exactly have any resonances at the ready," she called to harry "but I've got a few things I made that might help... what are you trying to do though?"

[Strider]

"Alright, so basically, thinker parahumans get a headache when they use their powers too much. I accidentally gave one to Tattletale and I've been investigating it slash contemplating a way too prevent them. Current working theory is that something in the parahumans brain requires a lot of oxygen, and increased blood flow too the brain causes inflammation. I'm considering trying to surgically increase the flexibility of the brain tissue, or decrease the blood consumption by increasing the oxygen storing capacity, to put it simply." Harry paused a moment, looking back over the notes he had taken on his tablet. 

 

"If either of you can provide info on parahuman powers, whether that be through your magic or something you learned on earth bet, that would be great. Also might be helpful if you have any magic or whatnot that would generally make thing safer. I'm a bit hesitant to operate without precautions here."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

There was a good pause as Proditor thought, "Risky... But could be rather helpful. I do believe I know the source of these parahuman powers though. Specifically, something in their brain, sending out psionic signals" Proditor stated. And, if he focused, he probably could've sensed Tattletale's psionic link, "However, I am not sure what it is exactly. But, I can attempt to see what it is, exactly... With your permission of course, Tattletale" Proditor stated.

[Sutoratosu]

Lucille's way of answering primarily consisted of reaching into one of her vest pockets, speaking a single word- which, in all honesty, felt almost like it caused a noticeable vibration to pass through the bodies of all those present, as reality briefly warped -and handing a small ceramic jar with a stopper to Harry.

        "If you're gonna cut her open, use this," she said "It's Galdur Salve, comes from a special tree where I'm from. Just about every part of it from the leaves to the roots is safe to consume, and it's the best medicinal plant ever discovered or made by Arganorians. If you put in on the stitches as you clean her up, it should heal the tissue good as new, and it'll help prevent infection too since it's also anti-septic." 

 

Lucille Removes 1 Galdur Salve from her inventory and gives the following to Harry!

Spoiler

Galdur Salve: a sturdy, ceramic jar containing salve that Lucille created via Alchemy, named after the primary ingredient used- a root from a tree which she has come to know well for it's healing properties. The medicine works far faster than normal first aid, thanks to the nature of it's creation. [Restores 30% of Max HP when used. 1/1 remaining. Can be given to, or used on, an ally at a cost of 1] 

 

Leaving the jar in his possession, she shoved her hands into her pockets "anyway, normally I'd say trying to operate right off the bat for a headache is a bit much, since I have something else that could probably take care of it... but if you think you know the root cause and can prevent it in the future this way, and she's alright with you doing... whatever, I guess I don't really have any reason to stop you."

[Strider]

"Thing is, it's a headache spawned from over use of powers, and if my analysis is correct, it's something that would cause long term damage if she got too many of them. Not sure it would, but since it's a useful thing, and we don't want long term damage, I thought I'd at least look into fixing it. And I actually haven't decided to operate yet. That will need permission of course. . ." Harry's eyes widened slightly. "So, Tattletale, if I'm quite certain of the cause and how I can fix it, would you be willing to receive a minor operation?"

 

"Oh, and Lucille, before you leave, would the healing properties of that plant be considered magic? If it isn't, it might be possible to create the active ingredient without needing a tree. Course it's probably just magic. . . And Proditor, a psionic link? Some sort of long range telepathy or something? Interesting. So there's some type of communication going on with something to grant these powers."

Edited November 6, 2017 by Strider

[Sutoratosu]

"It would," Lucille said, rather hesitantly "...but it also wouldn't. The Galdur Tree is a Chimeric Species- Chimeras were what we called any living organism altered by Thaumic means, back home - basically its functions are technically the result of  thaumaturgy, but the actual factors responsible for the thaumic ripples themselves are caused by biological changes to certain parts of the gene sequence, changes caused by specifically engineering, and then administering mutagens..." 

 

She paused for a moment, realizing just how much information she was giving to an stranger- albeit an stranger who seemed at least somewhat trustworthy -and also the fact that to explain much further, she'd have to reveal yet more....

 

"Um... look, basically you know how I went off on Armsmaster in his lab? And how I fused that cat with some iron I stole from him? Well, the basic principles behind making Mutagens and what I did are the same... I just cheated and totally skipped over the need to make a mutagen altogether; I didn't actually put physical iron inside of Do, I just took the structures and patterns responsible for giving Iron its physical and metaphysical properties, and I edited a few of his genes to match those patterns... and now, they cause a constant.... signal, which is responsible for making him how he is. The trees are the same way. It's just like..."

 

She again paused, thought about it, before finally giving up with a sigh and waving her hands, as if literally brushing off the entire next part of what she said "It's like installing a beacon or something, and if you cloned the tree, all it's clones would have the same thing going on. Look harry, I don't know how to explain it deeper without teaching you stuff I reeeeeeally shouldn't... besides I don't need anyone else to replicate it, I've managed to recreate a seed for another Galdur Tree already."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor waited until the girl, with multiple animal-like creatures following her, finished what she was saying, before speaking himself, "Precisely Harry. It's something I may have to investigate with Somatotrope, later" he added, before turning his his towards the girl beside him. What she said was... Actually a bit unnerving, at least to him. The ability to change someone's DNA to make them become iron-like was not a power that was weak by any means. In fact, it was extremely useful.

 

... He had a sudden thankfulness that she was not from the Earth he came from. Angelis would've found her almost instantly, and with power like that... She would've been unstoppable.

Edited November 6, 2017 by GodofGamingRWBY

[Hal Henderics]

(5, 14)

 

"Not until you have a known process to work with.  Parahuman abilities have eluded medical science since they appeared.  I want to see something substantive before you go poking around."

 

"You can have a look though.  That would probably help, I imagine."

Edited November 6, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[GodofGamingRWBY]

At Tattletale's permission, Proditor bowed, ever slightly, "Thank you. This should not bother you at all" he stated, before his helm snapped open, glowing light beginning to seep out of it as he began focusing his will towards Tattletale's mind.

 

He would figure out how this parahuman psionic link this time, and hopefully not have a knife pop out of his arm.

[Strider]

"Of course. Nothing without your permission, and nothing without a plan and a rationale behind said plan. I'm thinking we gather as much info as possible, wait until your headache clears so that if your powers tell you anything about that info we can also use that, and then contemplate doing something." It would happen eventually that they would have enough information. They weren't from this world, and certain principles, like the blackbox of tinker tech, simply didn't apply to them.

 

Harry addressed Lucille, remembering what she had mentioned in Armsmaster's lab. Her tight grip on the knowledge likely had something to do with what she had said then. "You have a seed? Interesting. . . It would take some fiddling, but my thought was to create an implant that might be able to secrete that salve naturally inside a person. Possibly into the blood stream, I suppose, maybe as a part of the plasma. Pure speculation right now, but there are multiple ways we could get that inside someone if you could splice the snips of DNA that give it its properties onto something else. Like bone marrow. We could create healing red blood cells possibly. And it wouldn't require any head surgery."

 

"Can you combine just the general healing factor with things? Because having extra fluid would create problems in its own right."

[Sutoratosu]

For several moments, all the girl did was stare at Henry with those blank eyes, expression gradually twisting in a grimace, lip curled in disgust and something halfway between regret and doubt. And before she knew it, she was there again, on that day- by her side, crying her eyes out as the scavenger's tortured screams filled the caved, apologizing profusely as she tried to get together the incantation... and finally, the silence after it all ended. Do and Astra alike became far more hostile as she glared at the man, the memory taking hold in them as well. The cat hunched his back and hissed as gleaming, silvery claws deployed from his paws. A dark energy gathered in Astra's mouth as she screeched, spreading her wings in a fashion that would've been simultaneously magnificent and terrifying... if not for the fact that she was a whelp no bigger than Do himself. 

       The entire thing had lasted barely a few seconds, her standing there, staring down harry as if he were yet another enemy from back then, before she sighed, shaking her head as she tried to get a handle on it. And at long last, she shoved that god forsaken recollection into its proper place in the back of her mind, and the foul ripples of emotion ceased over the bonds. Both cat and dragon stopped and went back to normal, as if nothing had ever occurred. Lucille kept staring at the doctor, palm clenched shut so hard, her hands had turned a rich porcelain,  voice very slow, and deliberate, as she seemed to pick her words... very carefully. 

 

"I... already... have." she said through clenched teeth. She again reached into her pocket, and this time pulled out a small metal kazoo. She took one of her thumbs to her canines, and bit down... hard. Blood was already flowing freely from the self-inflicted injury, but the girl played just one note on the tiny instrument, and like that, the deep puncture wound closed up, and the blood flow halted. She took out a few cloth wraps and wiped the digit off...

 

Harry would easily notice there wasn't even a scar from what she'd done to herself. she put both the rags and the kazoo away, before continuing "But before you say anything else about this, just listen. I... understand your intentions behind that idea, Harry... but it's nothing but a disaster waiting to happen. It's one thing to go splicing gene's with normal Mutagens, but with the method I use... it works by actively picking and choosing the patterns behind concepts present, and replicating them in the appropriate ways... well let's just say it's a lot easier and safer on animals and objects than it is people. People have baggage, a bunch of thoughts, they're like torrents of conceptual noise, and they constantly generate more by the minute. Much more than any beast or inanimate thing can...

      Doing what I did with Do on something Sapient, something that's capable of complex rational thought? It would be like trying to build a dam after a flood has already started, harry- yeh, by some miracle, you might manage to get it done, but chances are much more likely you're gonna fail miserably, or you'll succeed, but you'll make a fatal error that's just as bad as failing completely. I've tried something like what you're suggesting exactly..." She held up a single index finger "ONCE. ONCE, Harry. And once was far too many times. Using that ritual on Sapient organisms is a gamble I'm never taking again; I don't care how potentially helpful it might be if it works, it's not worth the price if it fails. Trust me on that."

 

With that said, she shoved her hand back into her pocket, turned, and walked away from the three of them. 

 

It was painfully obvious this conversation was done.

    

[Powder Miner]

The vision brought a multitude of reactions from Satomi. First of all, of course, it brought some startlement... but compared to some of the other things she had been through, a vision was perhaps not the craziest thing that she could have encountered. Divination may have usually been the domain of the shugenja magic-users of her homeworld, but this wasn't her homeworld.

 

The description of Arminius brought a slight scowl to Satomi's face; she knew that this PRT had some misconceptions about their group (PART was a bizarre cover up and she refused to think of it as the group name) and that she should not trust their statement without additional verification, but if they were correct in their assessment of Arminius, it was yet another horrible thing about him, even if she couldn't quite put her finger on the exacts of why it was awful.

 

Some of the overly terrified descriptions of the others did draw a little bit of a giggle from Satomi; it was funny to watch them scramble around talking to someone like Lilly, but it did present a little bit of a problem in that they sold have to be careful not to panic these people much more, (especially because their paranoia did potentially have justification)... say by causing gigantic explosions (and when criminal usage of the bizarre metal pieces was mentioned, Satomi winced.) Even though their description of her was surprisingly accurate when considering Armsmaster's earlier insistence that she had some kind of power, the idea that they thought some man named Teacher had given her her skills stung a bit. She had learned through hard work and through the Kaiu sensei, not from some person from their Earth.

 

The mentions of threats closing in on Brockton Bay drew another scowl from her, but a more determined one -- they would have to come back indeed, because their help would be invaluable in fighting these criminals off, Satomi was sure of that. Oh, even though APPARENTLY they were working with criminals already. Satomi would have to ask about that later.

 

--

 

After the vision, Satomi exhaled and pulled our her notebook. She had a couple of questions she felt were worth asking, and she believed that that world deserves their attention later, but for the sake of her own improvement she had something to pay attention to now. She had taken in a lot during her time there, and now if she took the time to collate it and further get used to it, she would be increasing her own potential. Springs, these moving metal devices, some of the aspects of their architecture that weren't the kind of thing that required her to see materials or blueprints, such as some of the supports she'd seen at the apartments and Rig...

 

Satomi spends 8 Merit, boosting her INT by 2 and her Gempukku passive by 4 levels!

 

--

 

When she had finished with that, Satomi didn't just want to huddle inside the bus anymore. She wanted to do something, and now that she saw other people walking around outside of the bus, she knew that she could too. So she grabbed some of the time-altered metal (indirectly, using armor plates to hold them; she didn't want to get cut up), and took it outside the bus, then started to put in the grueling effort to try to cut it into a couple of pieces to see what would happen. When she started making significant damage on it, though, what she saw caused a silly grin to spring up on her face. Not only was the metal highly dense, but it seemed that each of the separate stages that it changed into held damage differently -- meaning that the metal had frankly impossible structural integrity overall, and that it was nearly invincible unless one spent a lot of time. This might not work the best for weaponry like she'd originally envisioned, but she could not have asked for a better material for armor.

 

Rushing with excitement, then, Satomi grabbed more, small pieces of the shifting metal, and some of the regular metal, before shucking the armor plates on her chest and shoulders and getting to work. She took the plates of armor, put the time metal pieces onto them, and then placed the other metal plates onto them. Then, with a vaguely hammer shaped piece of wreckage from the boats that had been taken to the bus, she pounded against the edges of the metal again and again and again, forcing the two pieces of normal metal to kind of seal around the smaller piece of time metal in the center, a sufficient arrangement to hold the metal, especially when she tied them with rope also taken from boat pieces. And she did this for each and every single plate, resulting in a long and noisy process, the CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG of her work probably audible to most of the team.

 

But when she was finished... she took a test plate she'd made without her actual samurai armor, she took her earlier, worse crossbow, and she put the crossbow right up against the test plate. From this range, Satomi knew that bows and crossbows could relatively easily pierce armor... but the crossbow bolt stuck in it, unable to pierce more than one state of the time metal and getting stuck in the others. "Yes! Oh, that's fantastic!"

 

Strapping her armor plates together in the proper way, the diminutive samurai lifted her newly durable armor into the air, the silly grin back on her face. The fact that it made a light sound, a susurration from the slight grinding of the pieces that was fairly easily ignorable, made no difference to Satomi. This was incredible! It was fantastic! "Ohhhh," she practically squealed in excitement, "This is the best!"

 

Satomi uses one piece of Timefucked Metal, and upgrades her Light Samurai Armor to the following:

Time Sandwich Samurai Armor (Level 2): These plates of samurai armor have been modified, with usage of the metal resulting from the bay explosion making the armor extremely difficult to pierce without sustained effort -- damage only sticks on one of the phases of the timeshifting metal.

Level 1: +3 RES when equipped.

Level 2: +4 further RES when equipped.

[Hal Henderics]

Suddenly, a small rip in space appears, as a black great-sword flies through, it crashes into the side of the bus with dark force, but shatters before the Tinkertech Assisted Might of L33t.

 

The weapon's dark aura, and it's red gem, flicker, and then die as a square, digital looking energy flow from the damaged areas.

 

A strange triangular emblem on the weapon looks completely worn through, and unrecognizable.

 

Obtained

 

Quote

Broken Dark Greatsword: A strange black weapon, almost made from opaque crystal.  A red gem set in it's hilt lay dormant.  It is broken in half.  Deal 1d6+Str Damage.

Quote

Dark Greatsword Fragments: Large Splinters of Opaque Black Crystal, like tinted glass.  Each one is about as long as a man's arm.

 

It is loud enough to jolt everyone as the Bus is sent sprawling for a brief moment.

 

Edited November 7, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[Endlessblaze]

After the vision, the union of lilly and Ador mumbled some things under there breath. Something something would never something voice.

 

They mulled over the vision some, thinking on what had been said. Then a sword slammed into the bus.

The union fly's over to the sword and looks at it. Then they poke it. then they pick it up, along with its shards, and bring it inside the bus.

"Hey look at this"

[StormLord]

Hunt Starting:  "Hexen: Welcome to Hell"

Several second pass after the sword flies into the bus and another small point of light appears within this pocket space, a split second later a it spirals open into a large red portal.

Screams of the damned echo around the space for a moment, the small of fire and brimstone, and a wave of hot air pass over the bus.

 

A man stumbles half through the portal, his medieval looking plate armor pockmarked and smoking, he looks up at the group and says in a strained, exhausted voice:

"Please, help us!  They're going to ki-" 

And just as soon as he came the man was gone, someone or something dragging him back through to the other side of the portal.

 

The portal remains, flickering slightly, and occasionally letting out a pained scream.

You could easily step through if you like, or leave it be to flicker out in time.

 

((Those who wish to join the hunt should post here saying so and move to the Hunt's thread, posting a reaction there too if they wish.))

Edited November 7, 2017 by StormLord

[Chevaleresse]

"That'd be our cue," Kusuke said, wasting no time in moving into the portal. 

 

Kusuke joins the hunt.

[Endlessblaze]

The Union likewise drops the sword fragments, grabs there spear, and jumps out of the bus, flying into the portal.

"On it!"

 

Lilly and Ador join the hunt!

[kj1225]

Arminius stared at the portal, contemplating whether helping someone that looked to be a templar was a good idea. After a bit he sighed and walked through.

"Smells like my commander... but less pleasant."
Arminius joins the hunt.

[Projeck]

"They need our help!"

Calvera joins the hunt.

[Strider]

As she walked away, Harry spoke quietly. From what he'd seen she would be able to hear, if she was willing to. It might be telling. He spoke in Tattletales' direction. "Well, there goes that opportunity. Don't know where she got the idea that I'd want to her to fuse random concepts onto a person. I was thinking a bone marrow extraction, fusion, and then reimplantation, possibly with some assistance in its spread, but. . . I suppose that's not in the cards." Even if he had been foolhardy enough to want to do what Lucille thought he was suggestion, where did that leave him? He wanted to be of some use, goddamnit.

 

"Where the hell did THAT come from!?"

 

After Harry had taken in the unfolding events, he turned to Tattletale. "Well, it looks like there's something that needs our attention. Sorry about the headache again. . . I will try to find a solution, but it's probably better to wait anyway."

 

Harry joins the hunt!

Edited November 7, 2017 by Strider

[Powder Miner]

Not being in the bus at the time of the sword's impact, Satomi was lucky enough therefore not to get tossed around by it. But the sound did get her out of her working mood, causing her to pop up from the pile of wreckage she was at and slip on her newly improved armor. Good timing too, because it wasn't long after that that a portal suddenly popped into existence, emanating screams and a fairly charred and desperate man.

 

Really, there wasn't any hesitation from Satomi. With her armor now on and her crossbows at her back, Satomi charged through the portal, drawing her katana as she did. She had no intention of just letting people get killed, as bizarre as the whole situation was. She was more dutiful than that.

"Come on! We have to provide aid!"

Satomi joins the hunt.

[DragonRage]

Mirri joins the hunt!

[Yours Truly]

Jun had spent the last few moments with idly practicing with her newl as Lucille had taken the fragments and decided to do some weird magic shit with one of her dragons. And she was in the process of thinking of something she could say to comment on Lucille"s new creation when everything conveniently went pear shaped.

 

Thankfully Jun's superior reflexes and her sturdy armor would serve to prevent her from accidentally impaling herself on the temporal katana. And she would then stand up and glance at the hellish portal ahead of her for a few moments...before she shrugged and said "Well I guess I will see some of you on the other side then?".

[Sutoratosu]

12 hours ago, Strider said:

"Well, there goes that opportunity. Don't know where she got the idea that I'd want to her to fuse random concepts onto a person. I was thinking a bone marrow extraction, fusion, and then reimplantation, possibly with some assistance in its spread, but. . . I suppose that's not in the cards."

As Lucille walked away, she paused for several seconds... thinking. The sickening feeling the memory brought with had mostly subsided, though much of the unending internal criticism of what she'd done wrong, what she'd failed to do, why she'd been so foolish as to even listen to Avada's idea and let her talk her into it in the first place, it was all still there. For it never truly left, only went silent for a while, stayed dormant in the background, until the times where she could be reminded of what she'd done to that other girl all over again.

     Was it really her fault in the end? Had she really murdered her- was Avada's blood truly on her hands, or had it merely been a freak accident? something neither of them could've really known about...? Why did she still even dwell on it, after who knows how much time- they had barely known each other a day or two, at best. They have tried to act as friends but they were both perfect strangers from two very different worlds, and they both knew it. Just as easily as they'd met in that ruin and neither of them decide to strike the other down first, they could've just as easily done the opposite... and the scavenger would've ended up just another body. Infact, it probably would've been better that way. At least it would've been quick.

 

But it hadn't been quick. Not at all.

 

Avada hadn't struck first, and ended dead in retaliation. No, instead she'd chosen to actually try and talk, and of course Lucille, the damn fool of a girl she was, had listened. And instead of pick each apart, try to find even the slightest differences to justify conflict, they chose to ignore the petty details, because maybe, just maybe, it didn't matter who they were, or where they'd come from, because both of them had been slowly going crazy from being out there alone for so long. Two defective girls, driven out of their homes by one means or another, destined to cross paths in the overgrown ruins of the old world...

 

"I did what I could..." Lucille muttered to herself "I tried to help her, I tried to undo it..."

 

Not even she believed it anymore, no many how many times she recited it. She could've done more, could have broken the restrictions they placed on her, suffered in order to save her, and perhaps by some twisted, god awful irony, that was what lucille should've done from the beginning. Should've defied their will, should have disregarded their safeguards. Perhaps that was the true lesson. If she'd not let the fear for herself and only herself paralyze her, if she'd merely let herself suffer even a fraction of the hell the other girl paid, perhaps things could've gone differently... It was not a freak accident that had killed the girl, but her own wilful inaction. Inaction that took what could've been a Magnum Opus, a great work that could've benefited all, and turned it into a nightmare and a travesty

 

I didn't try to help you... she finally admitted, squeezing her eyes shut against the surging, moist heat she felt on her cheeks I was a coward... I was more afraid of what would happen to me if I even tried it, didn't even think how little it would've mattered, compared to what was happening to you... you died because I was too selfish to even try.

      She dried the streaks which had already made their way down her face "I'm sorry Avada...you wanted to actually be friends, but all the way to the end, the only one I was really looking out for was myself...if I could go back, do it all differently, I would, but..."

 

but...

 

"But..."

 

But what?

 

"...."

 

But nothing. That is what. Too little, too l-

 

"If what he's saying now is what actually meant...if it works.... maybe I can still make it right for you... maybe I can fix it this time, just in a different way than we planned..."

 

...But what good are cures for the dead and betrayed?

 

"Shut up..."

 

....

 

....pulling herself together as best she could, she turned and started walking back towards the doctor, eyes kept glued to the floor despite the fact there was nothing inside those worthless bits of flesh that could even perceive the floor.

      "Harry," she began, "What I said a minute ago, I'm sorry abou-"

whatever she had to say next was cut off as the entire bus rocked with impact, and sent a tilt. For the second time in as many days, Lucille was tossed off her feet and into the air haphazardly, her apology to the doctor turned into a stream of vile, horrific incantations in rapid succession, each one meant to bestow a curse upon whoever the everloving fuck had been responsible for this sudden crash... not that anyone there would be able to comprehend anything that came out of her during that time, it all would've merely been a stream of rather unpleasant vibrations flooding through their bodies, before she finally stopped cursing long enough to get up from the floor... 

 

But no sooner than she did, did the hell portal open. Out crawled the man in plate armor, screaming for help... something grabbed him by the leg, and pulled him back in...

 

And then, the murders began.

Lucille joins the hunt

[Hal Henderics]

Soma rapidly hefts her railgun, and fires it behind her, sending her flying into the bus, which she uses as leverage to leap into the portal headfirst!