Transformation Matrix

[trustycrowbar]

[The basement of the labs was dark and still, a graveyard of steam pipes and forgotten items and disused equipment that no one really wanted to see anymore. The area was all too familiar to Gordon; this was where his suit's charging station was sequestered.]

[But this isn't why he had come here this time. He coughed, leaning against the wall; pale, clammy, and trying to catch ragged shreds of breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire. At first he thought it was just stress, or exhaustion, or some fucking flu virus... he doubles over and coughs from the bottom of his lungs. Pieces of bloody... something, splatter to the floor. His own lung tissue maybe. Oh god, no wonder he couldn't breathe. There's plenty of soft defenseless tissue for the nanites to mess around with in there...]

[Yes, he knew exactly what was going on. That's why he wanted to get as far down and away from people as possible. Lock himself up. Hopefully the others will figure out what happened to him--]

[He lurches into another violent coughing fit and doubles over, wrenching himself to the floor. And those splatters of inert bloody tissue recoil from the impact, and slowly begin to inch away.]

[Video]

[Oh hey, look, it's one of those wormy scientist guys! Why is the background so dark...?]

"Ah, is this thing on? Oh, alright. Ahh... ahem... It seems that just to compound the difficulty the power to the labs has gone out. No one is sure of the cause, and to top it off our illustrious Mister Freeman has gone missing. I knew the boy couldn't handle the pressure of administration. It may be a while before we can--wait, what was that? No, over there. By the air duct! Oh FINE, I'll go looOH GOD--"

[The rest is cut off by screams and a sickening prolonged crunch. It's safe to say that the Labs would like some help.]

Comments

[third_alternative]

Oh great.

Rex does not stop to think about the circumstances or the consequences of what he might do.

No, instead, he just tries punching them harder.

~*~Flawless logic~*~

[faithful_kitsune]

"Stay near me, all of you!" Ran repositions the shikigami. Unlike Rex, she realizes brute force may not be the answer here. In which case, she needs to spot something, an Achilles heel of sorts. She hopes Rex can keep them distracted long enough for her to monitor through the shikigami.

The niggling feeling once again that she should be more capable than this enters her mind, but she fights it off.

[trustycrowbar]

The one Rex punched splatters and reforms, with a third smear slowing drawing itself together. The creatures split up, circling Ran and the scientists as the nanites in each individual bloodbeast get to work replacing their aqueous bulk. Soon they're both just as large as the original. Tearing them apart doesn't work, obviously. Maybe, you know, actually CURING them would...

The both bear down and growl, but the lunge is interrupted by a flash of lighter red and a startled gurgle as one of the beasts is violently pulled back and slammed up against the wall by...

a bunch of tendrils?

While the one is bound up against the wall, the other regains its treacherous courage to attack the nice pile of squishy humans and the fox girl.

[third_alternative]

Rex never actually considers curing in the middle of a fight. When something is trying to kill him, his first instinct is to punch back, not lovingly stroke it into submission.

...Although lovingly stroking them is starting to sound like a good option yeah. For lack of any other options, he grits his teeth, pushes his hand into the nearest monster, and hopes he can cure it before it smacks him into a wall.

He nods at the other monster, the one that was pulled by tendrils. "You think there's another monster we're dealing with in here too?"

[faithful_kitsune]

"Blast if I know! Whatever it is, it seems to want to help, but I cannot for the life of me understand WHY!" She sends out a larger, singular danmaku shot towards the lurching creature, shift to ensure she's in between it and the scientists.

She isn't entirely telling the truth. She has a slight hunch why this may be the case. But she doesn't like it.

[trustycrowbar]

The one lashed against the wall screeches and pulls at the restraints, one arm detaching completely. The tendrils redouble its restraints, wrapping bodily around it instead. Said arm falls to the ground and disintegrates into liquid ooze.

The free one is impaled by Rex's arm and starts to make good on it's position to bash him against the wall, but Ran's well-placed bullet bashes against it's upper torso, causing it to reel backwards.

When Rex's cure takes place, it screams and convulses, jerking to the ground, the four-limbed mass lurches, the gelid body melting away and leaving...

Nothing. A mess of blood and strange, spongy tissue. That's it.

[third_alternative]

"Huh. Curing seems to work."

He says, as if this is any surprise.

He glances up from the gross, bloody mess and spots the other halfling monster that he punched earlier. He thrusts his hand out at it too in an attempt to cure it before it does any more damage.

[faithful_kitsune]

Ran observes this process impassively, still maintaining the defense of the non-combatants. "It seems like you have considerably more effect than I do," she comments idly, an eyebrow raised.

[trustycrowbar]

[Said halfling monster was already starting to grow to full size, and it's lucky Rex found the right time to strike. It lurches back with a scream and dissolves into an identical mess of tissue, a little smaller than the first.]

[But if these are just parts, then where's the actual creature these came from?]

[The last bloodbeast screams in anger, actually pulling its own forelimbs out and reattaching them to slip out of the grasp of the tendrils, which are now having trouble keeping up with its water-through-a-sieve act.]

[third_alternative]

"Yeah, well, when you--"

Rex cuts off mid-sentence when he spots the last blood creature removing and reattaching its bloody limbs to get out of the tendrils.

"...Okay, that? Is gross." Rex runs closer to it and shoves his hand at it to cure it as well.

[faithful_kitsune]

Ran observes the tendrils a bit longer -- and then slips out a slightly smaller shikigami. Focusing, she activates it with as little light as she can, before slipping it up through the vent where the tendrils are coming from.

Friend, or foe? This must be established.

[trustycrowbar]

[It takes a messy swipe, claws forming and flashing only at the curve of the swing and then dissolving with a slight hiss. It ultimately misses, however, and the creature is infought and quickly liquefied like its brethren. Again, leaving nothing living behind.]

[The tendrils hang in midair for a moment after its wrestling partner is dissolved. They're close enough to easily lash out at Rex, but they don't. In fact when they DO move again, they do something one would never expect a tentacle monster to do... meticulously curl one tendril around the other, wringing the ichor off and giving a very human-seeming downward flap at the end. God that was nasty.]

[The shikigami, meanwhile, has quite a meandering path ahead of it. Airduct, to shaft, to airduct, around the top of a room, down a service shaft, into a steam tunnel... All the way down to sub-basement storage A. There in the dark, connected to several dozen tendrils snaking into service shafts and steam pipes, hangs suspended a faceless bulbous mass of pink, white and red flesh. It doesn't seem to be able to move, but the way it has snaked its way into the service shafts it can control the entire facility if it wanted.]

[third_alternative]

Rex does, in fact, fully expect a violent retaliation from the tendrils, and can't help but lean in when they don't. How strangely...not monster-like. He tries to gingerly poke it.

Then he turns back to Ran, recalling the shikigami she just sent through the vent. "What was that thing you sent through there, anyway?"

[faithful_kitsune]

Ran's eyes are closed, focusing on her sight through her servant. "A shikigami. Shh."

She refocuses, and channels her thoughts through it. Strange one. Do you understand what I am saying to you now? If you cannot speak, then simply show a sign.

[trustycrowbar]

[It pauses, even the tendrils in the corridor with them going still.]

"...What's it doing? Why isn't it attacking?" "It's... I think it's trying to think of a way to communicate!" "Nonsense! This thing can't possibly be intelligent! Look at it, it can't even perceive we're here! That was... a battle for territory we just saw. Nothing more." "Then why isn't it trying to get to us now?"

[As the gaggle of scientists make themselves known once again, the tendrils react by recoiling into the air duct. There's a sense of rapid motion within the walls, a slight tapping here and there that cause the labcoats to huddle together again...]

[And then another sinewy appendage slithers from a closer duct, and the end uncurls and lays something at the ground. A pair of thick black glasses, smudged with red.]

"...OH MY GOD! IT ATE FREEMAN!"

[...the tendril sags a little. He has no hand, and he must facepalm.]

[third_alternative]

Rex pauses before he leans down and gingerly picks up the glasses. Well that can't be good. Hopefully that's not Gordon's blood on the glasses. Hopefully he just dropped them when getting away from this area and someone else's blood got on them.

"Okay. Add that to the to-do list: find Gordon."

He glances from the glasses to the tendril, glasses to the tendril.

"It looks like it's trying to communicate with us, though." He crouches and inches closer to the tendril, trying to see more of it and follow it visually to its source. "Wonder what it's trying to say."

[faithful_kitsune]

Ran, her eyes closed, speaks slowly, deliberately, her focus clearly not all in the room with them. "I believe... we have already found him."

She maintains her focus. Gordon. I strongly believe it is you. The probability of it being anybody else is low. Please remain calm. The boy who cures is with me. I shall send him on his way. If you could provide me directions, I will assist him in reaching you as soon as I can.

[trustycrowbar]

"What? Where??" "What's she talking about?" "...Oh god... you mean that thing IS Gordon?!" "And yet he's somehow retained the mental capacity to communicate with us! Amazing!" "...Hm, what's the Lab's policy on dissecting fellow employees again?"

[Oh thank god... He retracts from the nearby vent and there are the faraway beeps of a door lock. A door to a service elevator opens, leading downward to the basement.]

[Also another door is slammed open by a second tentacle, leading to the machine shop and motor pool. A quick way out for the other scientists... he hopes.]

[third_alternative]

Rex frowns at the scientists. "No one's dissecting anyone."

His eyes follow the sound of the beeps to the service elevator. He walks over to it and places a hand on the corner of it. "So...is this supposed to lead us to him?"

[faithful_kitsune]

She nods. "So it seems. It is fortunate that he was able to maintain his senses even in this state. Be careful, however; I am certain the less cordial creatures are still around."

She looks over at the scientists. "I will safeguard their exit. If I do not hear from you in half an hour, I will pursue. Is that understood?"

[trustycrowbar]

"Oh thank heavens! We're going to get out of here after all!" "Are you certain? Those creatures that you fought look like drones of a sort. Who knows how many of them there could be!" "Well, we needn't worry about that now. We've got this, uh... young lady and what USED to be Gordon to protect us on our way out." "...maybe if we just dissected PART of him. One tentacle. He probably wouldn't notice--

[CLUNK. Oh would you look at that. Ceiling tile fell on his head. What're the odds?]

"OW!"

[third_alternative]

Rex can't help but smirk at the sight of the tile falling on the scientist's head.

"You guys keep an eye out for vicious ceiling tiles, then. I'm gonna head down."

With that, he enters the service elevator, waiting for the doors to close and take him to...wherever.

[faithful_kitsune]

She nods. "Come along now. And no more talking of your compatriot as if he were a THING. It is clear he does not appreciate it." She leads the way, a shining shikigami in front of her.

[trustycrowbar]

The elevator doors slide shut and Rex descends downwards. He can probably hear the low screech of large objects being moved before he even comes into sight of the chambers below, but as the darkness gives way to the lower levels he can see crates being slowly but surely rearranged in front of doors, blocking off flanking doors. ALL the doors, actually. How does he expect Rex to...

Oh. One tentacle waves from a busted six-foot-diameter pipe jutting out precariously above a bafflingly-deep pit. Of course. Why does it always come down to using the plumbing for transportation in these things, anyway?]

[Meanwhile, the ever-present protective tendrils seem to peer at Ran and Company from every vent as they make a circuitous route through the machine shop. Not a single machine is whirring or humming, leaving the whole place still, dark and deathly silent.

"That's the first time I've seen those pistons over there so still! It's... unnerving." "Isn't that the generator? Perhaps we can get them going again!" "And risk being seen by more of those THINGS?"

What do, Ran?

[faithful_kitsune]

Ran runs a series of logistical situations through her head. Escaping now would ensure the safety of all involved, but simultaneously slow down dramaticly the progress towards an overall cure. Meanwhile, restarting the generator would allow for further progress once the threat is neutralized, but also risked the greater loss of life. At the same time, however, with their unexpected ally...

She mulls. "Tell me quickly. How long would you expect restarting that to take?"