Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Cyborg Recovery Project (SET Initiative RP)

The thought-reader is here.... At last. The Killers are here, too.... They come to take us away. They come to put us down. They are afraid of perfection. The thing they strive to create, they fear the most.... They come to stop the perfect race... The more than human. The thought-reader and plasma-maker should know this more than anyone. It is useless to try and kill perfection. They escaped their prison... The same way we escaped ours... No, we will not be killed this day. We will fight for our freedom, and our life.

"Amy, active camo NOW." The command was filled with urgency, even though it was more robotic than Jack's natural voice. It still did the job pretty well. At the speed of thought, Jack was invisible to even thermal camera. Hopefully Amy thought she wanted to be invisible, too, which was all that was needed to become invisible. Just then a creature, whose color was a combination of dark green and bright blue, walked out from around the corner. The breathing was unnatural, and upon further inspection, the color would be found to be from a suit of armor similar to that which Jack and Amy were wearing, but adapted to his own body.

"How the hell did he get that?"

"Jack, I see it. I have the solution. Cleared to fire?" Austin's voice came through the comm.

"Affirmative. You are cleared to fire. Take the shot ASAP, please. This thing is about to find us."

"Copy that."

Seconds later, a laser passed through a perfect replica of the creature. It would have been a killing shot, but it was on a hologram.

"Damnit! Amy, we need to get out of here NOW. This thing is strong enough to rip us apart. The decoy was just to draw our fire. The heat signatures must have been due to his adaptation. I'll take point, and follow me quickly. If you see that thing again, shoot it!" Jack stood up, and the camo faded away, as he dashed down the hallway- Directly into a gigantic spike.

Woops, forgot to close that first paragraph's italics.

Amy perked up as she heard the thoughts of the creature. Whatever it happened to be. She felt dread in her stomach as it talked of her and Arrow. How did it know?! How did it know they were here? Them specifically?

She quickly willed herself invisible, as she projected a thought to Jack. It knows we're here. Specifically which of us are here..
She held her breathe, nearly closed her eyes in terror as they waited for Austin to take a shot. She was dismayed to find that it was not real at all.

Dropping her own camo, she ran after Jack, closely on his heels. She let out a small yelp, pulling herself back at last second to avoid running into the spike herself.

The spike wasn't there before, and it quickly proved itself to be a part of a living creature, or at least a weapon of sorts. It slowly pulled out of Jack's torso. He was breathing, but he was in bad shape.

"Holy- Amy, there is more than one of those things in there. And that thing sure as hell isn't Hologram. From what I can tell, that's the Cyborg that calls itself The Infection. It's a giant... Blob, that can change its shape. I think it just impaled Jack. Lasers won't do much good. Hang on, I'm coming in there."

Austin's concern for his teammates seemed to override his urge to crack jokes. Arrow and Red had materialized a fence around the perimeter as well, so anyone trying to get in would be violently rejected. They headed to the building as well.

Austin's rifle had been replaced with an energy-like sword, most likely holding the laser together using some kind of force-field which still allowed the sword to cut.

"Jack, you okay?"

"I'm-" Coughing. "I can hold up. I'll need some bandages when we get out of here, though."

"That's good. Hang in there, buddy. Amy, can you tell us what you see?"

The creature known as The Infection was hidden in the shadows of the already dark building, and Hologram's location was still unknown.

The thought-reader is frightened... She calls to her friends for help. She thinks they can save the old one from his doom. He has escaped fate for far too long... He will die here. The Infection and Hologram are here to ensure that.

Amy been unable to hold back a gasp as the spike impaled Jack, and then withdrew. Oh god, Jack! She was truly frightened now. She was in there, essentially alone, since Jack was hurt so badly.

She called out to the others. Jack's been hurt, I'm not sure if it's fatal...maybe not? She looked around in response to Austin's question. The one that stabbed Jack is directly ahead of me, I'm not sure about the other..They know, they know what I'm telling you..what I'm thinking... She would add I'm screwed. though this would be heard by Arrow alone.

Her eyes darted around until they locked on the shadows in front of her. It was not assured that she would be able to implant on this...cyborg, as she could not see it, nor had ever seen it directly. Still she tried to scramble his messages and perhaps it's thoughts through a loud high frequency wail.

A low, echoing chuckle would emanate inside each of the team's helmets. It was coated with static, but it was still audible.

"You listen closely, SET. No one touches Jack. Anyone who does try to help him out of the inevitable will share his fate."

Jack seemed to recognize the voice, as he associated a name with it.

"John..."

"Very good, Jack. You remember your old friend."

"Why are you doing this? Why... Why are you-" Jack stopped here to violently cough. "Why are you helping them?"

The voice sounded nothing like the thoughts Amy was hearing, although they were still persisting.

The thought-reader tries to block us out. Tries to prevent us from hearing her thoughts. Hypocrite. She thinks she can listen in on other peoples' private thoughts, yet she feels her privacy is being invaded when the same is done to her. Stupid girl. AGH! The sound is painful! No matter, we will force her to stop soon enough...

"Hang in there, Amy. See what you can do about Jack. He doesn't sound like he's feeling all that great." Austin and Red were heading up the stairs. "Jack, did you say John was here? I can't hear anything."

Grab Jack and take cover, Amy. I've found a quicker way to get you guys out of there. Don't worry about moving him, these suits have enhanced strength as well. Pretty nifty. Arrow's thoughts came through to Amy.

(When Arrow said "Don't worry about moving him," he meant "Don't worry about him being too heavy." Just wanting to make sure that was clear.)

Amy dashed forward immediately. She cared not for the words of warning that had been given to her. She trusted Arrow implicitly, and therefore would move on his order, without question. She grabbed Jack under his shoulders, and yanked him backwards, into a relatively protected corner, then put herself between him and whatever else was in the room with them. Whatever plan Arrow had, she hoped in would be quick. she kept the ringing going.

We'll get you out of here Jack

"Foolish girl." Two simple words. Two easy, simple words. Those two words, used in this context, meant a death sentence.

The low growling coming from what they now knew to be The Infection fluctuated with interest, and the sound moved closer. The sound was quickly cut off by the sound of a chainsaw.

"WHO WANTS SOME?" Red, who appeared to be cold at first, now revealed himself to just be brooding. Perhaps he had a personal connection to the previous SET, or he just really hated the Cyborgs. Or perhaps he just wasn't interested in socializing when he first met the team, trying to work out what was happening at the scene of the attack. The growling quickly turned into a shrill, horrible screeching, along with the sound of a saw slicing through was sounded like flesh. Of course, it was easily discernible that it was The Infection's flesh, but the sound might still be sickening to some who have heard similar sounds before. Perhaps the screaming of an unwilling "patient" as machines are tested on them, turning them into something more, or perhaps less, than human.

Austin walked in seconds later, looking around for signs of Hologram when Arrow burst through the window, shattering glass everywhere. The light was blinding for a second, and then the Infection retreated, slamming Red against a wall before jumping out of said window. Three different "Holograms" escaped as well, Austin following immediately. "Arrow, you can take care of them? I'll follow the Cyborgs, make sure they don't cause anymore trouble!" Arrow nodded before Austin jumped too, and ran over to Amy and Jack.

"I'm fine, thanks..." Grumbled Red.

Amy was relieved that help had come when it did, the voice's threat having made a cold chill run through her very being.

The sound of the saw ripping through flesh made bile rise in her throat, made her break out in cold sweat as flashes of terrible things happened in front of her eyes, that had no connection what was actually happening in the room around her. Her breathing becoming shallow, and quickly paced. She brought her hands up above her ears, though they were still encompassed in her suit, and it would not help any. For a moment she was a terrified teenager alone in a cold cement operating room, with some very bad men, not an adult in the middle of a dangerous situation. Bad timing for a breakdown.

Arrow was in the midst of trying to treat Jack's wound, which was actually already being treated. Apparently those jumpsuits you put on underneath the armor weren't just for comfort. The jumpsuit had alerted the armor to where it had been penetrated, and the armor in turn began to treat it. Impossible to explain in detail. If it wasn't obvious before, it was now very clear that the tech invented by the Old SET was very, very efficiently thought out.

After Arrow had bandaged and cleaned the wound, he noticed Amy was having a breakdown. Not now, Amy. Please.

He dragged Jack over to Red, who carried him down the stairs to better treat him. Now Arrow and Amy were presumably alone. Laying a careful hand on Amy's shoulder, Arrow tried to pull the girl out of the breakdown.

Amy lashed out with her hands the minute he touched her, going for his throat, Seconds after though, she would get over her initial shock and confusion, and retreat several feet. She looked around, the others had left. Damn she was useless. She had been wrong to think she could handle this job.

Arrow was well aware of Amy's attempt to attack him, and dodged, pulling her into a tight hug, not for comfort, but to hold her still until she calmed down. Amy, please. Calm down. No one's going to hurt you. That was years ago. Calm down, Amy. The Cyborgs are gone, you did great. You helped us get Jack to safety. I need you to try and come back, Amy. Listen to my thoughts...

Austin had met up with Red and Jack, frustrated. He had followed the Cyborgs, and gotten a few shots off on them with another weapon (He wanted to experiment with as many weapons as possible, to familiarize himself with all of them.) and had nearly killed one of them before he was attacked by a large group of Hologram clones, who inflicted very real pain on him, until he lost sight of the real target.

"Arrow, Amy, how're you doing? You okay up there?"

Amy was brought out of her thoughts by Arrow, and she quickly struggled away from him, uncomfortable being touched by anyone, including him. Sorry.. she more or less, muttered into his mind as she backed up several feet.

It was a good thing she was wearing a helmet, she would not have been able to meet his eyes now. She was ashamed this had happened here, on display for all to see.

....We're fine. Be down momentarily.

Arrow let go only when he was sure that Amy was fully with him, and not trapped in a memory neither of them wanted to have. You did nothing wrong. You just heard something that triggered a bad memory. You couldn't have helped that. I'll meet you at the bottom. Arrow stood up, and walked over to the window, jumping down. These suits were handy for getting places fast.

Once on the ground, Arrow was relieved to find that Jack was standing on his own.

"Let's head back to HQ to debrief. So sorry you guys had to go through this without any prior training, or knowledge of what these things are."

With some help from Austin, Jack headed to the teleport. Red followed.

Amy would follow a couple of seconds after Arrow, taking a moment to collect herself before she went down to join the rest. Somehow Arrow's reassurance had made her feel worse. He'd gone through many of the same things she had, but he'd hadn't reacted as such. He was able to power through the trauma, she wasn't. That made her a danger in the field did it not?

Landing a few feet behind Arrow she was relieved to see that Jack seemed to be okay. She would teleport back just after Red did.

Once back at HQ, the group would find that they were in a different room than the one they had met in, which would later be revealed to them as the Drop Room. After a few minutes to get changed into the basic uniforms, which were actually pretty comfortable, Jack called the group to the Briefing Room, which consisted of a table, (which had a touch screen,) a screen on the wall, and, of course, chairs.

"First of all, I'd like to congratulate y'all on an extremely well done job. We did what we came to do, which was get rid of the threat. And even though we didn't carry out our ultimate goal, which was to eliminate the Cyborgs, we still did a damn good job of scaring them off. Especially for a group of mainly rookies. Jack smirked, before coughing. "So, each of your spots at the table should pull up a transcript of what was said during the mission. The purpose of the debriefing is to learn from our mistakes, and to be better prepared for the Cyborgs next time we meet them. For instance, now we know Hologram has armor, knowledge we didn't perviously have."

Amy changed somewhat slowly, still trying to get back to herself, to right the emotional mask that she wore for everyone else's sake. She would consider resignation for the next little while. Dressing in what had been provided to her, she went out to the room the other's occupied and dropped herself into a chair.

She would avoid anyone else's eyes as she pulled up the transcript.

"5:09 PM. Jack: Amy, stick close to me. There may be more than we originally thought." Jack offered, after giving the group enough time to read through the transcripts at least twice. "The cyborgs are learning to play together. So far we know that The Infection and Hologram are working together."

"What about John?" Austin asked, to which Jack winced.

"Yes.. Him too. What else do you think we could find from looking over the transcripts?"

Amy had something to mention. "They were able to intercept our thoughts...and even use our suit's to speak to us." She said after a moment, this could easily prove a tactical nightmare.