Facility 666

[Yuno]

Eliseai could hear the noises perfectly and although she was focusing on them she nodded at Sunny's idea. "I agree. You could also try shapeshifting your ears shut when they go to use that. I don't know if you have my increased ability, but if you do then you could probably deafen yourself completely." She stood up with him and followed the others into the room.

She remained silent as they found the Epi and he began to introduce himself. She was completely focused on the noises that her enhanced through Sunny hearing was picking up. Then she was addressed by the new guy and her attention shifted to him so that her rainbow eyes were on him. "I'd rather wait until we are free of this place." She smiled thankfully despite this. When the two disappeared and they were beckoned into the beautiful area she was stricken.

Looking and hearing it all felt like a far off memory. Like an echo of a place she had been so long ago that she could only remember that she had seen this before. Her attention didn't even meet the renewed 62. Instead she dropped Sunny's hand to walk forward and touch the tree and grass. She breathed in deeply trying to remember this place. She felt that sense of decay once again, and her eyes watered over slightly at the feeling of deep loss. Finally, her vision fell on 62 and she smiled to see his new form.

In several steps she crossed over to him and hugged him. "You look wonderful 62. I mean not that I didn't appreciate you before, but you really look great now." She smiled at him. "I guess this was worth the journey." Then it struck her that perhaps her normal form would be too much for his eyes, her form subtly shifted to more mute and normal colors, all except for her eyes which remained in a spectrum of colors. "You can probably talk too. No more skin connecting." she smiled at him so happily and turned to watch the children playing.

Then finally, her eyes landed on Ghost. She looked out over the fake landscape at the children playing, the transformed 62 and Epi. Then her gaze fell back on him in a very focused way as if to say. "This is why we do it. This is what is worthwhile. Here there is meaning." Or maybe he was reading into it, maybe she was simply scanning the landscape.

[Edzilla]

Ghost was seemingly affected by the landscape, it was so ideal, so perfect. Ghost could barely remember the feeling of fresh grass, the low sun.. warmth. It was the warmth above all else. He'd been hot, felt hot pain when he was syringed, and he'd been cold, the whole facility was so hollow, it had its own shrill wind. He'd spent nights shivering, days shivering, the terms meant little in here.

At first he was unaffected by Eliseai's voice, he'd felt it coming, after all it was never far off.

The place was right, it was what life should be for everyone. All should have the right to spend there life under the ideal sun, on ideal grass, playing. Playing in a fake landscape.

"Whatever you feel, I don't, and don't talk to me as if its all so obviously simple..."

"I don't know what I've lost, but I know it was great, what my life should've been.... and I know I can't get it back," he said sternly, like the fact had been long accepted.

"Showering these children in ignorance doesn't help me, exposing them to something they don't have an will never have, but have tasted, and now want more than anything,"

"I accept you can't understand, you were IVF were you not? You don't know what outside was for me, or for yourself. After this facility, the only way is up..."

"Well that's not the case for me, there is nothing out there that can compare to what could've been, to what had been, and the idea of living anything else compares to this (please do not swear) place."

"I'd like to know what I want is before I accept that it's not there, maybe I can have some sense of completion, I'll follow you out of the facility, but telling me I'll feel happy is not your right..."

He turned, facing her briefly, she seeing the renewed clarity of his eyes. The iris were just so hollow, drained, and weren't recoverable, no telepath or teleken could revert them.

To him, he saw impermanence of her form, she had the birth rite to change and create herself, just as she could in the future, she would never have a scar, her mental pain would go. Yet he felt an element of sympathy. One of the few things that comforted him now was his sense of identity, that he was a person with a past, a story, a appearance. Although it had been taken, by the so called broad man, it was there and would remain within ad without him.

To him that was something she lacked, so he moved on to the door.

He really didn't know where he was going.

[mantisstalker]

62 gave Eliseai a soft smile as the environment slowly shifted to night and he could open his eyes more fully. "I could talk before." He said meekly sounding confused which caused Epi to laugh.

"She means with your voice." He ruffled 62's hair before turning back to the girl "But whats this I hear about skin contact?"

Before she could answer however Ghost made his speech about everything being hopeless causing Epi to tense and turn his head in Ghosts direction, his smile dropping to be replaced with a hard grimace. 62 saw the change and tried to calm him down by putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him but it didn't do much. The landscape faltered before coming back into view though this time a patch of dead and decaying grass surrounded Ghost. The children didn't seem to notice and continued playing but Epi continued to stare at him.

"I agree with you on the fact they shouldn't tell you how to feel..." His words sounded steady and measured but Ghost could sense something he hadn't before. Instead of just occupying one place like the others Epi's 'soul' took up his entire form and burned a bright white as he spoke. "But what did I tell you about dragging others down? I have spent the last 20 years of my life stuck in that cell, separated from one of the only things I cared about in this place and you do this?" He gave a laugh though it sounded hollow and caused the sun to shudder. "I mean your mind says your still in your teens and you give a speech like that? Around Sixty? Someone that has lived a life nearly twice as long as yours and full of suffering you can only imagain yet you still try to place these doubts?" The temperature seemed to drop as he clenched his hands into fists.

It looked as if he would continue until he exploded until 62 grabbed his hand. "Leave him Epi." It was no higher than a whisper but it grabbed Epi's attention immediately and the land went back to normal. He looked down at the worried face of 62 then the children who had stopped playing out of fright.

"I'm sorry." He muttered pulling 62 in close though he still looked over at Ghost the same look on his face. He didn't say anything but to Ghost the environment faded and became nothingness as the sensations stopped being fed to his mind. The room was now how it had been. Empty.

"Just like you..." A voice muttered without anyone hearing. 62 shot him an apologetic look though he made no move to speak but his expression spoke volumes. Be careful.

[Yuno]

Eliseai's many colored gaze turned towards Epi and she held up her hand, it slowly shifted about in a muddle for a moment before it took on the same pasty, synthetic hew that 62's old form had, "Before when I wanted to communicate with him I'd have to make skin contact. I'm not certain of the science behind it, but whatever psychic connection allows him to communicate with the children allowed him to share the same mental connection with me so long as I maintained the same physical resonance as him. We spoke a couple times that way." she smiled her hand falling back to her lap and shifting about to take on her unbelievably pale color.

Then she seemed to decided to pay Ghost attention. "Since we were thrown together I've never told you how to feel. I've suggested better ways than your path. But if I had the ability to force you to feel as I do I would not use it." Her gaze didn't seem hard to him, more sad. Then it struck him like a blow across the face, it was pity in her eyes. She, someone with nothing even a personality or form was pitying him.

"Nore do I think life is obvious. I know better than all of you that nothing is what it seems. But I also know that life is never a should be. Life is ever changing. You think that life should be something, it is that makes you so lost. Rather than appreciate what is, you get lost in what you feel has been denied." she looked down at her hands, "And that is why you can't appreciate the simple sunshine, or the closeness of people that have felt your anguish, or smile when someone is given back their true form."

She shook slightly her true form returning in the darkness. "The path you are going down will never take you anywhere good. But I suppose, I'm just trying to force my opinion on you." she shrugged offering a hand to 62, "Will you play tag with me?"

[Esiphas]

Mateus stared at ghost, a lot Darker than the usual glares he gave out. "Whether you find this hopeless or not, the rest of us march on. For our day of liberation... Our day of freedom. So whether you are going to sit an mope there, or come and help us, so be it. But I've got someone to find first, with or without you. Then we can sink this city, or whatever the plan is, and flee this godawful place. Now stop moping around Ghost. There must be something to live for." Standing up, Mateus walked out of the side door, looking at the rows of cells. They were dark, dingy, and mostly empty. A the end f the Hall, a spiral staircase. Mateus stood on the stairs and looked back to check if the others were following him, heifer heading down int the dark below him.

As he walked a,one the Dark passage, Mateus heard something snap. Immediately, he began scanning the area with his mind, only to be repulsed. By a very strong barrier. Looking ahead, he saw floodlights burst into life along the rooms edge, and the source of the sound was revealed. Ahead of a set of double doors, there was a single sentinel- but he was a sentinel unlike anything the group had seen before. It was a tall goat-like thing, with hooves on its hind legs, and shaggy fur up to its chest. However, it had the chest and arms of a Very large man, and to finish it off, the head of a wolf, with Giant Rams horns. In its hands, t clutched some form pole arm, like a Halberd, but with a much longer cutting edge. I had a long, wolf like tail, and gleaming red eyes. The creature stood at least 10 feet tall, and as the lights came n, it looked straight at Mateus and roared.

[t⊗theark]

Sunny looked around at the pristine environment. It looked beautiful - it WAS beautiful, but he could hear the rooms they were in, every time he blinked, he heard the rooms around him and was pulled right out of the illusion. The ignorance of the cerebates made them happy though, that matters. He felt alone in being not elated by the elaborate ruse - he wanted out, but just feeling like it.
"Looking good 62." He said, refreshing to see something which was not a monster with a featureless, necrotic head. He stayed back from the group a bit, not liking this new guy who would play with their perceptions like this. He gave a warm smirk to Epi who acknowledged him. Sunny went to introduce himself,
"Hi, my name is Sa-"
"Sunny, I know. You're infamous." Sunny's shoulders dropped a bit but he kept his smile.

He completely ignored Ghost for the most part, his pessimism fueled Sunny's desperateness to get out. Sunny sighed with relief as what he saw corresponded with what he heard finally and the illusion faded. All throughout that pulse, now he had noticed it, became a tinnitus-like annoyance in the back ground. he tried ignoring it.

Not in the mood for the others' politics he came to Mateus' side. Sam didn't trust the ol' doctor but he had to try and get over that. He seemed to care for Eliseai too, Sunny's emotions probably just blinded him from that.Several times now he a passing glance at Sam and El with the look of a disappointed parent. Did he know? How? He wanted to talk to him, but for some reason - be is awkwardness, shame or mistrust, the "Hi" barely tore off the tip of his tongue silently. Than he heard something behind a set of double doors.
"Doc, don't go in there, that thing is huge!"

To stay it off, Sunny erupted a wall of poisonous, radioactive flames between them and the beast.

[Yuno]

Eliseai had given up on the game of tag the moment Mateus called them back to being serious. She'd fallen in easily next to him as they walked in the darkness with a smile on her face. Strangely, the smile seemed somehow more free than before. She reached out patting Mateus on the back as if to say “don't worry. We'll find your past too.”

She stopped beside him as the beast turned to look at them and then roared. Eliseai's instincts were excellent, Sam's radiation lept between them and Eliseai shifted quickly allowing her to bypass the wall of radiation headed straight for the beast. Something in her told her that it wasn't going to backdown, which meant it would have to be forced down. With concetration she lunged at the beast her own body rippling and changing as she took on a cat form of similar height and weight to the beast. She answered its roar with her own and lunged forward at it her claws meeting its flesh only to find that the beast was at best angered by her advance. It swung at her only to watch her shift forms quickly to avoid being cut in half.

She landed on the ground darting behind it and the pouncing with all her might at its back her jaws clamping into the thick hide around its throat as her powerful neck muscles flexed trying to snap the next they held. The beast roared under her as it raged forward trying to shake her off and chopping at Mateus as it went.

[mantisstalker]

(ooc- Just saying Ark that even though Epi is a bit arrogant he's a pretty nice person and wouldn't have interrupted Sunny. Otherwise all good.)

As the others left Epi stood stretching before turning to 62. "I'm gonna give the Doc a hand, but I want you to stay here. Would you mind doing that?" 62 looked disappointed and moved to complain but after seeing the look on Epi's face just nodded. There was no need for words for him to tell that this was a way Epi was trying to make things up to him. To 62 though there was nothing that needed smoothing over but he did want to let the children play for a while longer. After all they may never get the chance again.

"Just be careful."

"You know me Sixty. When am I not careful?"

62 made no move to respond however and instead just stared at the playing children a strange look in his eye. Epi gave him a worried exspression but after putting a hand on his shoulder moved to follow the others. It wasn't hard for him to find them as all he had to do was follow their nerve signals but when he reached the battle he looked at the creature seemingly amused.

"He isn't very pretty is he?" He said to Sunny with a casual smirk "Though pretty or not I should probably help..." Looking at the creature with a bored expression Epi scratched the back of his head, while at the same time using his powers to strike the creature rapidly on the hand holding the spear causing the bones to buckle and crack under the assault.

Seeing Sunny looking at him Epi glanced in his direction before looking back to the creature. "Don't look surprised. I can do more than jump around in peoples heads you know." The creature gave another roar as with a particularly loud snap the bones in its hand gave way before the assault. Epi gave a sniff before carrying on. "The scientists called it High Impact Kinetic Strikes, or HIKS for short. Don't know why but they got a giggle out of the name. That was until I broke that ones leg." He started up the strikes on the other hand without so much as a sweat though looking carefully his body gave a flicker before becoming stable again.

[Esiphas]

Mateus ducked under its blade, and pushed upwards with his hand. It had the desired effect of blasting the blade away, but it also managed to nick his hand, sending a thin splatter of blood flying away. Mateus ran under the beast, rolled Nader its tail, and then tried to blast it's knees out, but the tail caught him with a flick, shredding the coat he was wearing. "That tail is sharp!" He shouted, looking at the ensuring fight. The beast had covered from its weapon being knocked back, and the bones on its hand were re-attaching themselves, regenerating the flesh around them too. The beast let out a low chuckle, and swung the lady in a much lower Arc, aiming around thigh height. Mateus was out of its reach, as was Ellesai, but the others would be cleaved in twain if they stood still. With its free hand, the beast tried to take a swipe at Ellesai.

[t⊗theark]

Sunny looked back at Epi, his look of astonishment fading into a smirk,
"Oh, I guess that that as a challenge. Heads up El, this one's coming fast and hot!" Sunny glowed a rainbow of radiation, him locking his power onto the front of the creature with guidance of his magnetic fields - seemingly aiming his blasts. He exploded with the sound of a crack of thunder, a light so intense it blinded those looking at him for a moment and weakened the concrete floor beneath him. The creature was pushed back, the front of it singed beyond recognition with muscle and viscera shining through. Its hair had been completely engulfed in flame. It collapsed in its own ruin. Sunny's celebratory, wolfish grin turn to despairing fear as its corpse got up, the scar tissue forming where the skin had been annihilated, tissue re-knitting itself and the radiation burns of necrotic areas melted away. Sunny let out 3 similar, directed thermonuclear explosions but to no avail, the creature, although scared and charred, seem to have as much vigour as ever.

Not noticing the damage that he was doing to the immediate environment with pushing his powers the ground below him began to buckle. He looked at the group, worried of his failure to kill the beast,
"This thing could survive a nuke, how are we sup-" The floor below him gave way. He landed on the story below but his residual heat from his atomic onslaught melted his through to the next floor. He hit his head on the way down this time, knocking him out. He melted through several more stories until he had cooled enough for his low limp, unconscious body laid on the cold metal floor of a dark muggy room.

He faded into a half-wake state where he saw tubes upon tubes of ... babies? Their skin was like that of the super soldiers, they had cybernetic parts growing with them. Sunny had not the time to be disturbed as be blacked out again.

[mantisstalker]

Epi had kept his eyes on the creature as Sunny started up his own bombardment one arm crossed over his chest and the other resting on it with the hand touching his face. If it wasn't for the glowing concrete and booms of thermonuclear explosions he would have looked like he was trying to solve a puzzle rather than crush the bones of a mutated freak. When Sunny fell through the however his attention deviated from the creature causing the attacks to stop but before he could do anything Sunny was already falling. The only thing he could manage before he hit the floor was to isolate the Cerebrate in a cocoon of mental energy to stop it from coming to harm. He just hoped that Sixty wouldn't come running in.

"Just wonderful..." He muttered turning away from the hole. He had come to try and protect 62 and make up for all the pain he had caused and instead ended up loosing one of his children. Angry now Epi rolled his shoulders and stretched both arms outwards before staring at the creature.

"If we can't just blow it to pieces it looks I'm gonna have to trick its body into killing itself." Clapping his hands back together Epi went back to his previous stance and gently extended his mind forward until it brushed the surface of the monsters, careful to not let any of it rub off against his own. Slowly he eased inside its mind with such care that not even the best trained of doctors would have noticed him and after a quick scan found what he was looking for. With a flick of his eyes he zoned in on the creatures hypothalamus and after stopping the flow of sensory information from its own body started to trick it into thinking that its body had experienced a sudden drop in temperature.

As soon as he started the process the thing looked up at him and gave a roar though he didn't stop the flow of fake information. "Right just keep it busy for a while and it'll end up killing its self, though by the looks of it he's already realized who's doing it." Epi then glanced at Eliseai "And he's fine by the way." He then turned back to the creature. Already it had began to shiver and constrict blood vessels, couple that with the large amount of physical exercise it wouldn't be long before its body temperature reached critical levels and its enzymes break down.

Epi then smiled a hollow smile. "What would I do without you Sixty?"

[Edzilla]

OOC- you guys get a lot done when I'm asleep or studying

Ghost sighed, exasperated from his futile attempts to talk sense. She'd already run off at this point, but still he muttered, "I shouldn't expect you to understand, think of me as you will, but it is far off accurate."

He followed the group, lagging behind a few paces. When the creature so abruptly came into view, he immediately stopped. "What the hell is this!" He yelled, genuinely surprised at the extent of the facilities operation. In seconds it had swung with its colossal tail, Ghost avoiding the strike with a stint of his power. Retreating backwards, he intent watched Epi go to work, surprise at the extent of his power, unconsciously becoming wary of the man.

Then he went, dropping out of reality, opening up the alternate world with little more than a thought. It was oddly silent compared to the real world, the only noise being the subdued rush of a wind which couldn't be felt. He moved over to the beast, it's centre burning like a furnace, the faded outline insignificant compared to the soul.

He walked to the beast, the shadow of its tail swinging through him numerous times till he made it to its centre. Heat emanated from it, searing his hands as they took hold. Then he wrenched, trying to haul the heat out of the monsters body.

From reality, they witnessed something open, the centre of the beings chest stretching as it vanished.

From where Ghost was, the screaming of the beast had erupted in his realm. The body now in his hands, instantly degrading to dust. A familiar jerk came, as he hurtled back into the world, through where the beast had seemingly gone. Together they shot back to reality. A section of the beasts chest, now dust.

[mantisstalker]

(ooc- sorry about all the posts )

"Or we could just do that..." Epi sounded almost disappointed though he breathed out a sigh as he no longer needed to keep tricking the creature. Multiple powers had always put a strain on him especially when they where far away like the fake environment. Shaking his head slightly he walked over to the gaping hole staring into the dark trying to pick out any movement. He knew from their pulsing minds that both of them where still alive but he had no idea at what condition.

"I'll get them." He said simply and looking at Eliseai before she could cut in. "Trust me. It'll be a lot easier than you dragging them up. Plus if that kid is hurt I'm as good as dead." A humorless grin spread across his face before he turned around to Ghost back to the hole. Pointing at the guy he said seriously "Sixty likes you but it doesn't mean I have to. If I come back to find him moping because you told him life isn't worth it I will personally rip apart your mind and scatter what is left in that damned plain I keep watching you slip into."

His false grin spread even wider as he saw Ghosts surprise at his knowledge before taking a step into nothingness. The others had been expecting to catch himself but instead he fell spinning end over end into the darkness until he hit the last floor head first triggering a bright flash even Sunny would have been proud of before disappearing. In the darkness everything was still until with a flicker Epi came back into reality clutching the side of his head with one hand eyes spinning. Giving a quick glance around at the dimly lit minds before moving over to the prone form of Sunny and the Cerebrate which he picked up. Sure they wouldn't be attacked for now he proceeded to stoop over Sunny.

"Wake up sun shine." He muttered as with a quick mental prod he caused consciousness to flood back to Sunny as if he was waking from a dream to be met with the blank face of Epi. "I think next time you should check the floor before you start blasting the place to pieces..."

[Yuno]

Despite how much Eliseai wanted to panic and run down to Sunny and leave the others to deal with the monster with a small meowing sound which caused her body and the stone to rumble from the power of her body seemed to agree to Epi's suggestion.

She watched the center of the wolf burst into ashes which didn't reform as it toppled over onto the ground seemingly dead. She climbed off of its back grinning as she strode towards Ghost "High Five buddy. That was so interesting whatever you did." Then she heard it, with Sunny out of function her hearing was almost as good as his was and she could hear the muscles tensing and the sound of claws against stone as the beast lunged at them with a howl.

Eliseai shifted just in time to meet him head on, her cat form at this point so perfected and large that it appeared like a copy of the beast they were fighting. As it rushed forward she moved to shield Ghost from the glaive. He watched in utter horror as it slid straight through her stomach as she rose up to meet him.

The sound was sickening and he could see the form Eliseai had was shifting slightly as if it was having trouble maintaining its chemical consistency. With a roar the caused the loose stones from the hole in the floor to fall clattering onto the next floor down Eliseai shoved the creature back away from the others straight through the door it was guarding. With a piercing hiss of pain she pulled the polearm out and turned pounding forward into the room. The two forms tussled from within both in too much pain to really know what was happening in more than flashes. But with a final hiss of satisfaction Eliseai inserted the polearm into the creatures head.

With that, her form managed to alter back to its natural state before she passed out in a bloody heap in the guarded chambers.

[Edzilla]

"No.." Ghost uttered, almost in disbelief, yet it was something he'd expect of her, still he didn't accept it.

"Why, why the (please do not swear) would you do that!" He yelled desperately, knowing she couldn't hear a word, knowing his speech sounded abrasive.

He looked at Epi, "look friend, I see don't like me, and I'll be damned if your self righteous manner doesn't piss me off, but she needs help." He looked desperately at 62, "do what you did with me, you know the whole assimilat.. thing, just get it done!"

He ran over to her, unfolding the quivering body somewhat so she lay flat on the ground, then looked into her rolled eyes.

"Your not allowed to die, not like that, you know you not." There was a quiet tentativeness in his voice as he tried to bring her back to conscious.