dappledleaves | THE WORLD: PSL LIFE

[No. It's clear none of them are functioning well on their own anymore, their skin hardening over, their eyes bleeding. This is why you don't wear these things. Sinclair grits his teeth, fighting past his complicated feelings and works on knocking aside the terrorists, beating them down hard with his baton, arcing with electricity. His limbs feel heavier with every talisman that attaches to his arm, but the moment it's all over...they all combust as well, flaking down into ash.]

I think...that's it.

[His radio receiver buzzes and Sinclair grimaces, picking up the remnant of that skin- an Abnormality talisman]

Emil! Are you okay? You touched one of those things...

[ Several of them?? Oria looks concerned as he stands by his side. ]

We can give you first aid the moment we're out. C'mon.

I'm...I'm okay. They didn't stack enough to really hurt me.

[There was that genetic resistance and compatibility again. He carefully rolls up his sleeves to show bruises in the shape of the talismans, but nothing else]

I think...we can exit through this way.

[Hopefully nothing else will stand in their way]

I hope the others are alright.

They should be fine if they're as strong as you are.

[ Even though he hasn't seen their combat experience firsthand, he feels that by watching Sinclair do those things, the others would be just as proficient. Either way, they finally get to the first floor. Is the exit in sight or is there another obstacle...? ]

[ Ah ]

...mm. They're definitely stronger.

[ The exit is there but there are definitely things crawling around now]

[ Oria is at a loss of words for a moment. Those are definitely monsters. There's no way to think otherwise. Terror suddenly grips him, leaving him frozen. They have to fight these? He'd normally get over it and try to think of a plan, but his mind feels utterly blank. Is this what they meant by lack of resistance?

The four legged beast charges at them with its claws up, ready to shred the two. ]

Oria--

[Instinct as Sinclair throwing himself in between; he's no Lord Partizan here, with heavy amounts of armor to guard him. All he has between himself and the howling mass of flesh, teeth and claws is a suit woven to give him some resistance and a genetic disposition to help him fight back. He catches the teeth with his baton but not the claws, that slash across his forearm. He staggers, then with an arc of electricity, slams it into the underside of the beast, and rolls out of the way of another attack.]

[ When Sinclair gets hurt, there's a moment of brief clarity. These seem tough and the four legged beast seems persistent. The other one, Peccatulum Luxurie, strikes down with one of its limbs. There's no way in hell that Oria is going to block that, so he tries to evade it. He's very close to evading it in full, but then he gets smacked when it launches a quick follow up attack. Do bullets work on it? Oria shoots some full metal jacket bullets at it, hoping that it'll do something before he becomes monster food. ]

[Bullets do work, especially if Oria manages to hit it in the eye, making it spasm and howl - eerily humanlike - before it charges again. But now that it's blind, it should be easier to dodge.

Meanwhile, Sinclair is occupied with just keeping this thing off him. It'd be nice, Sinclair thinks, if polearms were easier to carry around in real life. He'd much prefer to have some distance between him and this rabid dog-like creature. He huffs a quick breath out, drawing in his focus. Faust said the new equipment would wreck havoc on his mental state if he spent too much time using it. It's fine. As long as he could buy them enough time to escape...

He ducks behind a pillar and focuses as the baton extends out further with a sharp, pointed tip. Then he launches himself forward and drives the baton into the creature's jaw like an icepick, twisting upwards to reach the brain. In a sudden bolt of power, the creature begins to screech in pain.

Focus, focus. This isn't an animal. This isn't human. It's all just--]

[ He lures the one eyed abnormality far away on the first floor and promptly uses a more forceful bomb instead of an incendiary to hopefully damage it. It being blind is a good safety net. He's a little worried about Sinclair, so he throws another explosive at the blind enemy so that he can go and help him.

He thought about shooting its eye but where the hell is it? Now that he thinks about it, its appearance doesn't look natural—not that these things are natural in the first place, but there's something off about it. ]

Emil! I'm gonna throw a bomb into its mouth, so can you lure it into my direction?

[ tiny bombs, why does Oria have tiny bombs.

But they could help with the last one right now so Sinclair yanks out his baton, electricity arcing down still and begins to run]

Got it--

[Please enjoy the gaping maw with teeth and claws as Sinclair runs by, with more speed than normal]

Now--

[ He's got his baton ready to finish both the abnormalities; a few more minutes and

Thi would have been easier with his actual equipment]

[ What's your actual equipment, Sinclair. Huh. Anyway, Oria throws the bomb into its maw like a baseball pitch, triggering the bomb. He hopes the abnormality goes splat. ]

[ The hide on this one is stronger than the Peccatulum Luxuriae; it twists visibly as the explosion goes off, limbs and bone matter splattering to the ground.

But it's still alive somehow. There's no hesitation in Sinclair. He slams his baton into the beast's exposed heart and sends a crackle of electricity that finishes it off.

Then there's silence. Sinclair waits, tense for something else to emerge...

But they really are alone now. He runs over to Oria, reaching out to check for any injuries]

Are you okay?

[ He got smacked by the earlier abno, so he could be better, but it's fine. He's fine. It's gonna leave a bruise, but don't worry about it. ]

I got smacked, but I think my adrenaline is holding off the pain right now. Are you okay? Let's get out of here.

[Sinclair shakes his head]

I'm fine. [ From here, he doesn't need a map] My team's meeting point isn't too far from here.

[ He takes Oria's hand, and they make their escape out into the back lot of the sprawling complex that is Kayser Corp. Judging by the smoke emanating from certain parts of the building, the terrorists had hit it hard.

And a few employees who hadn't made it beyond the abnormalities were basically in pieces along the basement. Sinclair averts his gaze, squeezing Oria's hand a little harder.

It was more important to get him and Oria out of here than to mourn people he didn't know]

This way.

Edited 2023-12-22 21:03 (UTC)

[ Oria doesn't even look at the bodily bits and gore littered all over the place in a way that ignores something that you're used to seeing that no longer deserves to be the focus of your attention. He understands that hand squeeze, so he squeezes it in return and sends signals with the emergency button that he is fine. ]

It's not too long after this. Can't wait to take a shower and sleep on a bed.

[Oria was used to this, Sinclair notes. Not the abnormalities, but the carnage.

These ones weren't even fully formed, Sinclair thinks grimly as he leads Oria through a winding route with plenty of cover. Once he got back to the bus, they'd be okay, he thinks]

Mm. A long shower and a nap would be nice about now.

Yeah. It's too bad. Kayser Corp really got their karma. If a terrorist group has their eye on them alone, maybe they should hire better guards first? Preferably nothing slimy either.

[ ... Anyway. ]

I don't think we're under NDA either from whatever happened today, but. Wow. I don't think we can even tell anyone if we wanted to.

[ Monsters? Seriously? Some magic shit? Bruh. ]

Maybe we should just shut down Kayser Corp instead. They're insane.

[Slimy...? Sinclair doesn't dwell too long on that part. He raises his hand to his chin, frowning]

We're not under NDA, but there's...um. Other groups, government organised that, well...

[Yeah. Yeaaaaaaah]

I wasn't expecting such a big corporation to get so reckless though. Those terrorists were former employees too, so. They upset a lot of people.

Organized what?

[ Tell him the deets, Sinclair. Oria is still new to all this, so he wants as much information as he can possibly get.

Regardless of people being upset, a terrorist group is still a terrorist group. He knows his mom is going to ham on them in particular. ]

Our company wasn't the first to get involved in this. It's more like, we're a branch to clean up the original company's mess. The government gave the original corporation a lot of money and facilities to do research into people - how to extend people beyond their limits. Something like super soldiers or weapons. It took a different turn though, when they realised their experiments could produce a great deal of energy they could harness for other things. [Exhaling softly. You're getting the cliff notes, Oria] Everything was shut down ten years ago after some incident that wiped out all the facilities...but a lot of those 'abnormalities' escaped. That's all I know though. My clearance level is really low.

We really had an entire corporation like a monster zoo and ever since that got destroyed, the monsters broke out? And it was never leaked to the public? Ever??

[ He thinks this part is much more fascinating because what the fuck. ]

If the enforcement is that heavy, I wonder what happen to Kayser Corp.

Anyone that leaked it got painted as crazy, I think.

[ In the day of CGI and all...It was easy to paint things on screen as nothing more than a well designed movie or video game]

Is it so hard to believe they had a lot of support in covering things up after CCCorp?

[ Two months of radio silence and all.

As for Kayser Corp...]

... Kayser Corp probably would have been able to conceal it better if you weren't in the thick of it.

Edited 2023-12-22 22:24 (UTC)

Well, that's that and...

[ Well. ]

Okay, you got me. I bet that would have costed a bunch of money... should I be expecting some shady people at my doorstep some time in the future that's either trying to bribe me or threaten me into compliance?

[ Sinclair laughs nervously]

Um. Probably very soon. It's hard knowing what goes on in Ms. Faust's head sometimes.

[ Dante was friendly enough but...]

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