SET Initiative

David took a moment to bend over, hands on his knees. He was breathing hard, eyes squeezed shut. Sam crouched near him, the two talking on a private line before Sam glanced towards Austin and nodded.

"YEah, we're alright. A little shaken up.. Not used to hearing screams like that and just moving on." He said stiffly; it had even gotten to him. Alex and Michael nodded their agreement, but Alex gestured towards the stairs with a flick of his rifle. "Let's keep moving, don't want to be here any longer than we have to be."

Austin just nodded. He understood how it felt to just keep moving. Every decent part of you just crying out, saying that there is a human being in pain. And you have the capability to fix it.

"Alright, that's normal." He turned to face Alex as he spoke. "Once you guys have caught your breath, we can move on."

Once everyone was ready to move on, they did so. Austin taking the lead on the escalator-turned-stairs heading up. Just a little bit more to go, and then he could be on the shuttle and back to Addie.

The rifle was reintegrated into his armor now. They (hopefully) wouldn't be encountering any Infected for a little while longer. Once they were above ground, Austin looked back at the rest of the guys to make sure they were all still with him. He pointed at a large radio tower, which had a purple arrow juxtaposed against it on their HUDs. "There's our checkpoint. We get in there, find survivors, and get out. It's a two mile walk from here, and after that we're golden."

This was surprisingly easy. Nobody was injured, and no Infected had attacked.

Austin thanked his lucky Stars that the Infected were docile at this point- For whatever reason they were.

It didn't take long for David to nod that he was ready to continue on, and so they followed after Austin again, heading up the stairs towards the surface again. Sam brought up the rear, keeping a wary eye on his siblings. He couldn't risk them having a break down like he'd heard about Austin.

Finally, they reached the radio tower, and waited just outside the door, glancing to Austin. Alex looked cheerful, but kept quiet;knowing his luck, he'd jinx them somehow. So instead, he just held his rifle, having taken it back from his armor as a precaution..

They made it into the radio tower, easy. The first few floors were clear, (read: empty of living creatures) and nothing beyond a few unsee-able images (weren't all Infected, though) came their way.

The real problem was when Austin tried to open the door to head up to the fifth floor. He was instantly tossed back by a bolt of lightning, and a woman jumped out- She looked to be in her late twenties.

Thank God the door wasn't nearby a window. Austin was thrown violently into a bunch of desks, various pieces of his armor trying to decide whether they should be materialized or stored as holograms within the watch.

The girl turned her gaze on Alex next. Her voice echoed in everyone's mind like that of a demon.

"So good you could come."

Alex didn't hesitate. As soon as Austin was tossed like a rag doll, he fired. The Sam did as well, while Michael and David hurried to help Austin.

The plasma electricity seemed to..just be absorbed by the woman, which caused Alex to pause, which was a huge mistake.

A bolt, nearly twice the size of the one that threw Austin, ripped through the air to Alex, and the man flew through the air, hitting the wall behind Austin and the others with a sickening crunch. Michael immediately ran to him, while Sam tried to figure out what to do. Obviously, their weapons were useless right now..

Alex was in bad shape. He was badly burned, and from the weird angle his left arm was laying, it was likely broken.

The HUDs of each of the still-standing members of the crew changed. Widgets on the screens that were mainly for navigation now switched to tactical combat analysis. The best course of action was to power up energy shields on the armor and go for close quarters. Knives would do nicely.

The woman's body crackled with electricity. Small bolts of lightning crawled around her body, causing her to glow an eerie plasma blue.

She was waiting for the next fool to try and attack her.

Sam whistled for Michael. David was better at emergency aid than either of them, so he'd have to handle Alex and Austin himself until they could get rid of this..thing.

Sam reached for the knife from his armor, Michael following his lead. The armor's shields practically buzzed, and without hesitation, Sam dove in,taking advice from his HUD, while Michael, always the more cautious, took a few seconds to analyze before joining his brother in the fight.

The electricity cracked and exploded against their shields as they got close, and when she lashed out, Sam stumbled back, but the shields did their job, and he h an opening to drive his knife into her arm, hopefully giving Michael enough of an opening to do more serious damage from behind.

The woman's arm bled a strange purple. Glancing down at her cut, and then glaring back up at Sam, she screamed and grabbed his helmet in her hands, forcing as much power into it as possible.

The helmet's exterior would be fine, although there might be a few graphical errors in his HUD. Given a few more moments, however, and she'd start attacking him with her own physical strength. Unfortunately, she was very strong.

Her distracted rage against Sam would leave her wide open to Michael. His display would advise him to rip out the computer chip embedded in her neck before doing anything else.

Sam yelled when she grabbed his head, squeezing it. While the helmet caved in, it didn't just yet, giving Michael time to let his display tell him exactly what to do. And so he did it.

Lunging at the woman attacking his brother, he practically roared, one hand pushing her head down, the other, knife ready to help pry it out if he needed the extra umpf. With the sheer adrenaline he felt, he didn't. Grasping the chip, he ripped it out with a grunt.

The effect on the woman wa enough to get her to release Sam's helment, which in turn gave the eldest an opening to drive his knife towards her chest.

Distracted, Michael glanced towards Alex and Austin. Alex was in horrible condition, practically baked, while Austin seemed to be stable, at least. The distraction proved too long, though, as the pain driven woman kicked back, hitting him square in the stomach.

The woman was growing weaker by the second. Her electricity instantly stopped, and her strength was sapped. She became like a scarecrow, except weaker.

Her limbs went limp as she kicked Michael in a last-ditch effort to kill them. Damn the failsafe.

She was still very much conscious and aware, but she couldn't move by the end of 45 seconds.

Austin's armor still wouldn't work right. Various plating kept materializing and dematerializing, and little bits of static flew out of the cracks in the armor. He was dizzy, and had a hell of a headache, but he was otherwise fine. The same couldn't be said for Alex.

Austin sat up, ignoring his malfunctioning defense system and trying to reorient himself. "You- You guys okay?" He coughed.

Sam and Michael made quick work of her, finishing her off violently. IT was clear they were furious.

While the eldest two were finishing the woman, David was carefully dematerializing Alex's helmet, to get a look at his brother's face. Thankfully, burns had not crept that far, but the rest of his body...

The armor had cracked in several places, and any flesh exposed was severely burned, oozing blood. Alex was semi-conscious, and David glanced at Austin, shaking his head. "We need to get him out of here, he's in really bad shape."

Austin was still dizzy, but he had regained his bearings enough to be able to stand up without losing the contents of his stomach.

Upon seeing Alex's condition, Austin grimaced. "Damn," he murmured. Plasma burns were the worst. "David, you stay here with Alex. Michael, Sam, and I will head upstairs and search for the boys and any other survivors. We'll come back down in a few."

Austin's armor coincidentally decided that he looked best without a chest piece. And so his torso was covered by a fluctuating and fickle force field and a black, SET-Issue t-shirt.

Also, the right shoulder was really more of a blue hologram than actually solid, and his helmet was powered down.

Good News: Armor bore the full brunt of crazy lightning lady's attack.

Bad News: Austin's armor isn't working right anymore.

Nonetheless, he stood up and nodded at Michael and Sam- an "I'm ready" gesture.

David was already doing what he could for Alex, following the directions that kept flashing up in front of his eyes on his HUD. Hearing Austin, he just nodded, focused on his work.

Sam and Michael just stared at Austin. He was out of his mind, thinking he would survive like this. But what could they do? Alex's armor wasn't much better off, and they couldn't possibly get it off of him safely.

Sighing, Sam jerked his head for him to come, and when he stepped forward, he and Michael did their best to keep him covered, one in front, one bringing up the rear to try and give him at least some protection as they started for the stairs again.

Austin wasn't about to just let them go on without him. He wanted to do this for himself- Something about feeling inferior to other SET Operatives, yada yada "responsibility," "guilt," et cetera. Whatever.

They continued up the stairwell without trouble. The HUD read that they the top floor wasn't too far, and that was where they'd supposedly find the source of this transmission.

The fact that an Experiment had attacked them a few minutes prior wasn't exactly the most reassuring thing in the world, but it told them that at the very least someone was still here a week later.

Once up to their destination, the door opened to reveal...

An empty room. A few seconds' searching would likely cause at least one of the three to notice the two small Infected forms, sitting and apparently crying silently. If either of the brothers were to aim their weapon, Austin would put his hand on it and forcibly lower it.

"No."

~~~~

From behind them, a voice unfamiliar to the boys, and only slightly less so to Austin called out.

One second it was as raspy as sandpaper with a smoker's cough. The next, smooth as a jazz player with a throat full of butter.

He was wearing the same suit of armor. "Glad you could join us."

The brothers moved up with him, rifles ready. When Sam pushed the door open, they both checked before letting Austin through.

Michael was the first to notice the two small forms, and indeed raised his rifle, though Sam hesitated, leaving Austin to only push down the one. What was going on?

When the man appeared, and spoke, however, both of the Scotts had their rifles up in a heartbeat, HUD trying to find any weakness in the man, something they could use to get to him. This was Austin's thing, so Sam glanced back to him, waiting to hear what he wanted them to do.

The brothers' readouts would suddenly glitch out and stop working entirely- Leaving them with the equivalent of motorcycle helmets.

Austin whirled around upon hearing the voice, pointing his pistol at John's head. He was glaring.

John's raspy, torn voice choked out a horrendous laughter. He laughed for a good minute before his voice reverted to a tone average for a human being. He took his time and finished with a sinister smile. "See? Your technology was smart enough to figure it out, after all. I knew you'd know where to find me."

Michael and Sam likely didn't have the slightest clue, and so John addressed them each with a smile as well. "Boys, you know Austin as a fellow Operative of the Project. I know him as Experiment Number 19645. See, the Infection was... An amusing tool. A useful and ruthless killing machine that allowed me to gain control of a lot of things. Unfortunately, it decided it liked flesh a little bit too much. And, well, you see how that turned out. So I worked on finding a counter to it. Trying to remove blood from other blood is impossible, of course, so naturally I did the next best thing: I found a way to directly control it."

And like an exhibit at an expo, these two small Infection forms turned into two little boys.

When they began to cry, Austin's heart caught in his throat. He knew they had been Infected, he just didn't see their faces. Perhaps they were some other small creatures that John had abducted.

But he recognized their voices. When he turned around and saw them: Bloody, scarred, and with chips on their necks, that was all it took for him to break down. The pistol fell from his hands. He dropped to his knees.

Austin was speechless. All he could think to say were two simple words- "I'm sorry," he choked out. "I'm sorry..."

So John laughed again, knowing Austin had gone to his own little world. "You can have the boys. My work is- *Ehm*" He coughed and choked, his voice becoming raspy and horrible once more. "... done. Soon, Earth will be reformed and under my control."

Sam was pretty callous, at least compared to most of his siblings. He was hardened, and angry, and quick to make decisions.

This, however, cut him to the core, in a way he hadn't been expecting. Those two boys, innocent little children, had been cut up, experimented on, and this man..this..monster, he was the one who had done this to them.

He lost his temper. He barely heard anything else John said about Austin, though Michael's surprised expression indicated that he heard every word. Sam lifted his gun, and immediately started to fire at John.

Michael didn't know what else to do. Austin seemed to be having a breakdown, Sam was being..well, Sam. He darted forward, and grabbed the two boys as gently as he could manage in his hurry, basically tucking them under each arm like little footballs, and sprinting for the door, yelling at Austin. "C'mon! Get your head back on, we need to go!"

The eldest brother snapped out of his furious stupor at the shouting, brows furrowed, though he continued firing. Something was off. This was too easy.. This guy was just letting them walk/run out of here? No way.

John didn't even flinch. As he was hit time after time with plasma bolts, his whole body glowed with another odd plasma... He was wearing overshields like they had been using. His smile faded and he stopped talking.

Without breaking eye contact with Sam, John popped his neck (both ways) and licked his lips. "Fine." He growled in that raspy, horrid voice of his. "You've just made a mistake. I was going to let you go." He took a step forward and his helmet materialized- It would be now that Sam might realize John's armor was much larger than his own. He took another step, and an odd baton-like thing appeared in his hand. (Think: Lightsaber handle.) There was a steel pole running out of the bottom of it that went down the forearm and a half-foot past his elbow. John flicked his wrist and the baton glowed an eerie red-orange. "This burns through plasma-powered armor like a hot knife through butter. You will not see the rest of tonight."

Austin was visibly shaking, gripping his head in his hands. He had taken his helmet off and it was tossed aside. Michael's yell snapped him back to reality. He cursed, and rubbed his face before grabbing his helmet and picking up his gun. "I'm comi-"

Just then, a massive man- At least a head taller than John- Appeared from thin air. He was wearing full body armor much different from the Standard SET Combat Suits, (it looked about the same density, if slightly thinner,) and he wasn't carrying anything. He smashed into Austin, (hard,) and sent him flying through the window. The man in the armor stood at the edge of the now broken window for a half-second before nodding silently and giving chase after Michael.

The man, or whatever was in the armor, was fast. Much faster than even the artificial enhancements SET's Armor would give. He caught up quickly and smashed into Michael's backside, likely knocking him over. The kids would go flying, but they'd land on the ground relatively unharmed.

John, meanwhile, advanced towards Sam still, picking up his pace. The baton had flipped so that it was extending outwards from his hand, not backwards towards his chest. "Ready to die?" Came John's smoother voice, like a cliché villain out of some spy movie.

Samuel was a hardheaded, stubborn man, especially when it came to a fight. But, he was also incredibly smart, and in this situation, he knew two things:

1.) The man in front of him was a few moments from slicing him into pieces like a chicken on a butcherblock.

2.) Austin had just been sent out a window by another man, who just knocked Michael onto his face.

Without a moment longer, Sam turned and sprinted for his brother, grabbing him by the back of the arm and practically throwing him to his feet. Tucking one kid under his arm, he waited for Michael to follow suit, and they kicked out of the room, shouting down for David to pick Alex up and go.

The larger man popped his neck by quickly jerking his head from side to side, and simply watched Sam and Michael run off with the children. He didn't seem particularly interested in chasing them.

Then again, if the brothers looked behind them as the raced down the stairs to the ground floor, Experiment 00013 was only two floors behind them.

Austin fell. It took him a second, but he knew it. He was going to die today.

Still, that didn't stop him from trying to prevent it. Normally, looking at the ground from really high up was a novelty. Something he enjoyed.

Now the ground was going to kill him.

The first thing he did was check his watch. His helmet was already way ahead of him, he could see it a few yards from where he was. The watch's display still worked, thank God. Well, kinda. Austin hit a few buttons to no avail.

Shoot. Shoot shoot shoot. Okay, what do I do? He was toast without his watch. He took it off in frustration, and somehow the materialization mechanism still worked.

What remained of his suit disappeared.

... Well- Austin cursed. He looked at the clunky thing, almost throwing it away in frustration. He was later glad that he didn't. Pulling it back onto his wrist, he tried to activate the suit one more time.

It didn't work.

This was it.

This was the end.

It was all over. He'd tried and he'd done his best. Now all he could hope for was that Addie's brothers make it back safely, and she wouldn't take the bad news too hard.








*thud*

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Wait. This can't be it. This can't be the end. Austin was a protag. He was supposed to make it to the end. Right?

Besides, if he was gonna die, he should have done it way back when he was all distant and crazy and suicidal and stuff. But not now. Not so suddenly. Not like this. He deserved some heroic death. One that was directly involved with the saving of the world.

But it can't be over so soon! This RP is too much fun.

Austin's not dead. He's not. He's alive somehow, laughing at us for believing his elaborate hoax. He's not dead, he's not dead, he's not-

Oh.

Austin's eyes were met with a familiar glowing blue. His readout. His heads-up display.

His first thoughts were dammit, I should be rid of this thing in the afterlife. His next thought was ... Is this the afterlife?

It wasn't, thankfully.

The dice were gracious this day. He wasn't dead. Not yet, anyway...

He pushed up and looked around- He'd made a pretty large dent in the concrete. Wow. This was the best worst day ever.

Well, he thought, trying to ignore the headache, I didn't have to run down any stairs, for a change. Miraculous.