|
Post by Advix on Feb 18, 2013 2:26:41 GMT -5
Heather looked at the grate and the duct itself, before she grabbed it with her armored hands, and began to pour current from her own armor in the grate. She overloaded the battery powering the duct with a loud bang, and then tore the grate from the duct, allowing Lea to crawl into shaft.
"H-Hurry. They'll hear." Lea, however, could not simply leave. She couldn't help but turn around, and hug the cybernetic ave. If she had tears, she would have cried, and Heather slowly hugged her back.
"...Thank you. I-I'll never forget what you've done for me," Lea choked.
"No need for-thanks. Now, you must go." Lea let go of the avian woman, and pulled herself up into the shaft.
"Thank you, Heather."
"Be safe." Lea began to crawl through the shaft, but after she followed it for a good while, it shot up vertically. It was hard enough for her to move this new body, but she could barely gain any traction on the metal sides. Still, Lea refused to give up, not after coming so far. She climbed and climbed, slipping a step back for every two she made. Though she wasn't feeling any physical pain, her mind ached as she struggled to maintain her shape as she fought her way to the top. She pounded on the grate as hard as she could, until she smashed it open, and pulled herself out onto the ground. The sun... She had never been so happy to see the sun...
"Leaving so soon?"
...That voice. That eerie, mocking voice. She wanted to cry. Her mind told her not to, be she couldn't help but to turn around toward that awful voice. Floating there, as if he had been waiting for her the whole time, was Boa. Her mind screamed in fear, and her body began to lose its shape. Was this really the end? Had she tried so hard to for it to-
"Well, have fun out there." ...What did he say? Did he just..?
"...Th-that's it? You're just... letting me go?"
"Letting you go? Ah hahaha! There's no letting you go, I'm letting you leave. Do you really think you'll be free out there? You silly girl." Boa floated closer to her, slowly bearing over her as her form became flatter and flatter in fear. "Do you understand why I can afford to let you prance about? Because I can find you whenever I want. And if you think your body will protect you from me, you are terribly mistaken."
|
|
|
Post by Greed on Feb 18, 2013 11:39:14 GMT -5
-Lea-
Truth be told, she was speechless for a moment, her body forming itself up more tightly as she slowly regained her composure. She was scared to death of this man. However... something deep down inside her was screaming at her to stand up to him.
"O-Okay then... what if..." Oh boy. It was gutsy. She wasn't actually sure she could even pull it off, but...
"What if I found someone who COULD stand up to you? What would you say to that!?" She was a touch panicked... where had... she come out, anyways?
|
|
|
Post by Advix on Feb 18, 2013 12:54:42 GMT -5
Boa suddenly made a choking noise, but it turned out that he was only holding back laughter, until he roared out in hysterics. He laughed and laughed as Lea watched in fear, realizing that she was in an alley, and that Boa was blocking her way out. His laugh bounced off the walls of the alley they were in, until he swiftly lunged at Lea, knocking her to the ground. Any thoughts she had been thinking were wiped away in the face of a sharp chill where Boa had touched her. It wasn't just fear, she was physically cold. As she struggled to comprehend what this meant, Boa grabbed her leg, and a frigid chill quickly spread throughout her entire gooey body. She was freezing cold, and her body was becoming thicker and thicker, until she could barely move at all. She couldn't even flail her arms to defend herself.
"Haaaa~, you are just too cute Miss Zeal, with your little bravado. And you know, I just can't help myself in the face of something so adorable," he whispered chillingly to her. To her horror, her body was beginning to take a smoother, more human shape, but it wasn't her own doing, it was Boa's. His cloak disappeared, and he removed his mask. He was a tall, handsome, but incredibly muscular elf, with long blonde hair tied at the tip, and wild green eyes. He wore black slacks, combat boots, and a black tanktop, showing off his hard, toned upper body. He looked down at Lea like a snake at a mouse as his gauntleted hand slowly slid up Lea's smooth frigid leg. "Do you understand? Your body won't protect you from ME. So go ahead and scream, if you can. There is no one here to save you."
|
|
|
Post by Greed on Feb 18, 2013 14:10:24 GMT -5
-Kross-
Kross watched the monitor silently, massaging his forehead; Boa. Just... Boa. His lovely habit of fucking with every single one of his sentient experiments. Possibly fucking them in general. He couldn't deny that Lea had some serious guts for someone without any actual intestines, but that would work against her with Boa.
One of his tiny cameras, almost identical to a wasp, landed on Boa's shoulder, delivering a tiny message into his ear, for him and only him.
"Boa." The sound of someone being pulled against their will.
-Lea-
Oh god. She was cold. Frozen, actually. She couldn't do anything but look at him. And she could feel all of it. She didn't doubt for a moment that he was sick enough to...
to...
"... " She couldn't move her mouth to even scream. Her attempts to move her arm succeeded in making it fall off. And yet, beneath her terror, she was boiling, deep down inside. Was this how that giant man felt all the time? No... she was sure he was far angrier than her. After all, she was just a normal girl until a while ago.
All she could do was wait for the supposed inevitable.
|
|
|
Post by Advix on Feb 18, 2013 14:57:40 GMT -5
Boa continued to crawl up Lea until he... stopped. He looked down at her with eyes full of madness, and a disgusting, hungry grin, but he wouldn't go any further. "My my, you are possibly the luckiest girl to ever live. The next time you see the Good Doctor, you better give him a big damn hug. But don't you ever forget." Boa slid his hand all the way up her skirt, whispering to her in that slimy voice. "No matter where you run, no matter where you hide, I can find you. So you better find a big damn hero to cower under, because you have no idea what I'm capable of." Boa stood up, and summoned his cloak back to him, and picked up his mask, giggling.
"You better hurry and warm yourself up, before one of his drones snatches you back inside. Hihihihi, go ahead and run, and see where it gets you! Ahahahahahahaha!" Once more, Boa reeled his head back, and plunged it into his own torso, disappearing in a shrinking spiral of black fire, until he was gone with a wisp.
|
|
|
Post by Greed on Feb 18, 2013 18:40:14 GMT -5
-Lea-
It took her about two hours to thaw out enough to move.
It took her three minutes after that to discover what had become of Grand Divide.
And it took all of three seconds to realize what her life had come to after all of that.
Lea Zeal found no signs of life, only signs of carnage, no matter where she went. Nothing moved, and her mind didn't register the wind at all. When she tried to find where he house was, the apartment she lived in with her parents in uptown Grand Divide...
There was no uptown. All that was left was a colossal hole, the bottom still glowing from some tremendous blast.
As Lea sat in front of what seemed to be a once nice, now collapsed bar, forming knees for her arms to hold as she curled up against the back wall, she realized something.
She could only wait; this broken landscape that was once her home had been wiped out while she was captured.
Her family? What of them?
Dead.
Her dog, was it...?
Dead.
Her friends... that she only saw at school...
Dead.
Her relatives?
Dead.
Dead.
"They're all... dead." And once she finally admitted that to herself, she broke down on the spot, crying and screaming enough for everything that she realized she had lost.
|
|
|
Post by Advix on Feb 18, 2013 20:35:40 GMT -5
"Nnnngh...How curious." A voice came from inside the ruined bar, and Lea could... feel some presence waking up and move around inside the building before a very tall, old man in archaic clothes walked out. Like Boa, he wore a white mask as well, though his was blank, angled, and lacked any eyes holes. On his back was strapped an enormous, toothy sword, over a long white, sleeveless jacket. He wore a worn blue gi under the jacket, along with a black hakama and combat boots. His forearms were wrapped in bandages, and half-gloves covered his hands.
"It is not everyday that I hear a voice without a pulse. You don't have the aura of a demon. In fact... you feel very human." He walked over to Lea, and sat next to her. "Would you be willing to tell your story to this old man?"
|
|
|
Post by Greed on Feb 18, 2013 21:56:55 GMT -5
-Lea-
Lea almost jumped when she heard the man's voice, at first... but this man's voice didn't hold any of the malice of Boa's, nor the cold apathy of Kross. In his own, rough way, it sounded like he was being sincere. Even then, Lea's entire body hurt from crying so long; it was certainly different from being human...
"... A-Alright. I need to tell someone who will at least listen." She... had to be honest. She was pretty certain most people would treat her like a freak now.
And so... she told this man, with the white mask how her day had been. She'd gone to school, taken a test, chatted with her friends, and gone home... and on the way home, she'd been abducted.
She told the man of Kross, Boa, Heather, and the metal monster Boa had called Adonis. Lea told the man what Kross had done to her, how her body had fallen apart, only to defy death.
She told him of how Boa had tormented her, promising her there was no escape. In fact, the only reason she wasn't in Boa's clutches now was because he'd (thankfully) lost a deal with Kross.
... She told this faceless man how Kross and Boa acted, the stark contrast between them. And how, not more than a few hours ago...
"... so... there. That's my story, for what it's worth." Lea held her fabricated knees, leaning her head down, her short gooey hair running over them, "So I'm ...basically a homeless freak of nature with no family, no friends, and no hope. Hope you weren't looking for someone cheerful out here."
|
|
|
Post by Advix on Feb 18, 2013 22:27:37 GMT -5
"No, I was not," the tall old man said. "There's nothing cheerful to be found out here. The Devoid dreadnaught, Ileris made sure of that." He slowly, cautiously reached his hand out before touching her arm. After feeling it for a bit, he finally found her shoulder, and rubbed it. "Forgive me, that was more awkward than it needed to be. I can sense you, but I'm having trouble perceiving your form." The old man sighed, his head tilted down as his silvery bangs hung over his mask. "I've lived a long, long life, but never have I heard a story quite like that. You have my deepest sympathies, young lady. You must know, though; Grand Divide is no longer a place for you to live. The infrastructure is devastated, the ecosystem is slowly dying, and now it appears that necromancers are moving into the city. I find their migration here to be too uncanny. It smells of something devious. My business here is over, for now, and I think it is time that I make my way for the Bridge. You may accompany me, if you so wish."
|
|
|
Post by Greed on Feb 18, 2013 23:54:55 GMT -5
-Lea-
Devoid did this, then? It was just another thing on her list of things she really hated today, honestly. It the end, did it really matter who had done this? Grand Divide was... well, most of it was destroyed or flat out gone. She didn't have anywhere to go. Like he said, this was no place for her to... for anyone to live. If anything... Kyril would claim this place for itself, just like it had Delphine.
"Alright... Malen is about the only place left for me, now." Lea stood up, forming her legs as she steadied herself. It still took a good bit of concentration, and she doubted she could keep it up for even a mile. But... it made her feel more human, at least.
"Say..."
-Kross-
"Ha... hahaha... Now that's just funny." What he was seeing, through his cameras. That was....
"Well, now. My experiment is in excellent hands for the time being. Heather, would you like to play with Subject 147?" Kross had not bothered to even scold the cybernetic ave; after all, this was his plan all along to get her out into the field. As he walked over to one of the cages, and released the door, a small bark echoed through the lab, as a small dog, who's back legs and tail were reptilian scampered out of the cage, and circled between Heather's legs, happily wagging its tapered tail as it pawed at her, not minding her armor in the slightest. Kross' face didn't change. It never changed. The man simply looked back to his monitor, an oddly pleased smile on his face.
"Now this is a variable that works in my favor."
-Lea-
It was a long pause as they were walking, and the masked man didn't mind; he certainly didn't rush her into spitting it out.
"... what's your name?"
|
|
|
Post by Advix on Feb 19, 2013 0:52:19 GMT -5
The tall, old man turned his head slightly towards Lea as he kept his pace easy enough for her to keep up with him. "I am Raiga no Kyuu." He continued to walk forward, passing by the ruins of the once proud lamian city. "You said that you wished to go to Malen. For the time being, my apprentice is there. I think it would do you well to seek her. She comes from a somewhat similar background as yours. She's a survivor of the Delphinus Blitzkrieg, as well as... well, she is self-conscious of her injuries, to speak of it lightly. I guarantee that she will not judge you on your appearance, rest assured. She once took in an orphan as her younger sister, and she is in general a very kind person. You can be certain that she will help you, even if you neglect to mention me. Until then, know that you are safe in my company. When we get to the Bridge, bear no fear for the eyes of others. I will defend you." Raiga no Kyuu continued to guide Lea on their way to Grand Divide Bridge. But they were not unnoticed. Stand far away atop a ruined building, Boa watched on.
"...Hmph~. You little tramp," he scoffed. "You really are the luckiest girl to ever live. But don't expect that luck to save every time. You can't help but make yourself more and more interesting to me."
Heather's mouth hung open in a smile as 147 weaved around her, and she knelt down to pet it. She detached one of her metal "feathers" and it began to float and fly, 147 chasing after it. As 147 played with her "feather", Heather stood up, and cautiously approached Kross. "D-Doctor..." Heather feared Kross almost as much as she feared her own master, but... "T-thank-you..." She would not neglect to thank him for protecting Lea from Boa. "I knnnow you... not care, but thank you."
|
|