itstopped | Re-Entry 08: Video/Spam

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Re-Entry 08: Video/Spam

Help!

[The cry goes out while the video is still turning on. The picture, when it appears, is chaotic: Felix Gaeta, ashen grey and soaked with sweat and tears of panic, but only for a second before the shaking camera turns on what looks like an empty Western ghost town, caught from a high vantage point, shingles visible at the bottom of the screen.

Not empty. There are snarls and yowls and a terrifyingly organic sound coming from below.

Felix's voice cuts in again, tight with fear. He's not a hero. He's not a fighter. He's the one at the controls, and for all that he's usually good at staying calm in a crisis, it's a lot frakking easier when there's a console between him and it. He sounds a little hysterical.]

SOS! SOS! I'm pinned down in the-- oh, gods-- [There's another furious roar from below; his voice hitches, the camera shakes.] --the CES. Something attacked us. I think Dean is dead. I--

[There's a scream from underneath, unmistakeably human. The communicator drops against the shingles--] Dean? [--and cuts out.]

[Open Spam for Level Two/Infirmary, Later]

[After it's all over, after they've done what they can with Dean's corpse and patched up whatever needs to be on the survivors, Felix is set adrift into the aftermath. He should get cleaned up and then stay with Dean, he knows, or else he should get back to work and keep something like this from happening again. But he can't seem to make himself go to the latter just yet, not with Dean dead less than an hour, and the former...

He's always known that the death toll exists here, but he's never had to really confront it before, not in a way he couldn't brush off and ignore. The truth is that it scares him more than almost anything else about the Barge, even here, even now. It's not ignorance; it's not that he's never seen anything like it before. It's that he has.

The pull to sit by Dean's side and wait is powerful, but in the end, he winds up haunting the door to the infirmary, still red-eyed and disheveled, constantly peeking inside.]

((Right after/congruent with this, obviously.))

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[ Oh jesus christ. It had to be Dean, didn't it. Steph's already pulling on her suit. ]

I am en route to your location, armed and ready. Is anyone else coming?

Edited 2013-05-19 23:46 (UTC)

[There's a nasty grating sound as he fumbles the communicator back up, the picture gone out.] I don't-- I don't know. We're, um, we're on the northwest side, near the center, I think. We were on our way to--

[Oh, frak.] Iris, she's in here too, northwest corner. I don't know what happened to her.

Got it. Can you confirm any injuries? [ If Dean is alive or is Felix is hurt, they take precedence. Otherwise she needs to find out about Iris. ]

I-- injuries? What? Dean is being torn the frak apart down there!

If you're hurt or in immediate danger you're my first priority. If not, I need to make sure Iris is in the same condition.

What the frak are you talking about? Do you hear what's going on here??

[ She's running too fast now to roll her eyes, but the impulse is there. ]

Iris hasn't called for help. If that's because she's physically unable to I'd like to make sure somebody knows about it. Do me a favor and let the next person who contacts you know she's in there.

Gods dammit, are you coming or aren't you? [He remembered Iris enough to mention it, but beyond that, he couldn't care less about her right now; the dogs are still snarling and growling below him, although he hasn't heard that human voice again since he dropped the communicator, and all he can think is that Dean is going to die, is dying, is dead, and he'll be next.]

Frak it-- SOS! SOS! Is anyone else on this channel? I need help! Warden down! We are unarmed!

I'm practically at the door, Jesus, bite the hand that jumps in front of monsters for you, why don't you?

[ But she hears the communicator drop and she once again has to resist the urge to roll her eyes as she shouts into the communicator. ]

I don't think yelling at the thing is going to help!

[He's done with her until she shows up or cuts out; he doesn't have the breath to argue. He's just going to repeat the distress call until Racetrack chimes in.]

[ She wasn't lying. She shoves her comm into her utility belt, pulls out a compass, sprints the last few feet to the door and throws it open, more than grateful that she's stopped wearing that stupid mask and cape with her costume. It never did do much to stop her getting concussions.

Northwest, to the center. Good thing she has a compass, right? She finds the direction and starts sprinting again, shoving the compass back into her belt and replacing it with her taser. Her staff is in her other hand, and she presses the button to extend it to full length. She has no idea what she'll find but she's sure it won't be pretty. ]

[ Racetrack doesn't get there more than ten, fifteen seconds after Steph. Soon enough, at least, to see the other woman charging in. No idea who this person is, but - ]

You got a compass?

[ Pretty clear what they're both here for, and if she runs, Racetrack will keep up. ]

[ Steph slows only long enough to see who it is that's joined her. She doesn't really know Racetrack, but she's seen her on the network. She picks up the pace again. ]

Yup, keep going straight and you're northwest. Never leave home without a utility belt full of crap. [ And she's used to snarking and running like hell at the same time, so... ]

[Steph isn't wrong at all: it's an ugly, grisly scene they'll find when they get there. The glimpse of the environment given through Felix's communicator holds accurate, a sprawling, dilapidated ghost of a Western town stretching out in front of them, complete with windmill and saloon. The one end appears empty, but...

It's not far from the center that they find them. Or just him, now. The ground is absolutely covered with blood and bits of gore, soaking into the dust and staining the ground and the wood of the porch Dean must have run up onto before he was attacked. There's not much person left there, otherwise. What there are are hungry, snarling dogs, fighting over the remaining meat.

Incongruously, there's a leg lying abandoned nearby, but it only takes a second glance to see that it's made of metal.

The human survivor doesn't spot them right away. He's up on the roof covering the porch, huddled and defenseless, his attention on what's happening below him.]

[ Steph slows as she sees the dogs, and then she has to try very, very hard not to throw up.

She ends up heaving a little in her mouth. There isn't enough mouthwash in the world.

The taser seems like the way to go for a start. She turns to glance at Racetrack, hoping the woman doesn't have significantly more guns planned first. It is really hard to fight alongside someone when you have to avoid being shot by them. She whispers. ]

Dogs first, then Felix?

Sounds good.

[ After a certain point, she just follows the animal sounds, the ones that make her progressively more sick - or would, if she was paying attention to anything but the adrenaline.

(Though it does occur to her, belatedly, that she has met this girl over the network. Shows how good she is at paying attention.)

She knows better than to get in the middle of a pack of wild animals, even with a gun; she stops short of them, right near a wood pile and a shed she could get onto if she had to. ]

I'll see if I can scare them off. [ Discharges her gun twice. Not aiming at them, more hoping the sound would be enough to scare them. She's going to make the attempt to get them away from a good path of approach for Steph. ]

[ Steph has her weapons ready, just in case. And it turns out to be a good idea, because the guns don't seem to scare the dogs. Rather, seven heads turn in their direction, and a chorus of growls starts up. ]

Oh crap.

[ Steph raises the taser and gets at least one of them before the rest start running in their direction. The taser is dropped and from there it's all staff work. Six dogs. She's had worse... right? ]

[ Not normal wild dogs. So noted.

Racetrack swings herself up onto the roof, kicking away the wood pile beneath her so that no dogs can get up there. ] Hey!

[ This call being to Steph, whom Racetrack is perfectly ready to pull up behind her. If Steph isn't coming, she'll retreat a foot or two past the edge, and start to shoot.

Very carefully. Breathing before every shot. Meaning the shots might not come that often, but when they do, they're not going to hit the wrong things. ]

I've got this! I have totally got this. [ She pulls out a batarang that she was really rather hoping was a gooperang and tosses it at a dog at the center of the pack, only moments left before they're on top of her.

It's an electro-magnarang. So it shocks one of them, and that's five dogs now barreling at her, teeth bared. ]

I don't got this. Coming up!

[ Luckily she has a grapnel gun too, and she's in the air quick enough that a pair of teeth make a gash in her boot, but nothing more. She pulls herself onto the roof opposite Felix's and sighs. ]

Well that could have gone better.

[ There's definitely relief, knowing that Iris is okay and Steph's not just abandoning her because Felix can't keep his cool. But there's also a very cold dread. ]

Well that can't be good.

Tell me about it. You lot got it 'andled?

Would definitely not say no to an extra hand or six, but we're holding our own.

Iris is in there?

I'm going after her.

Don't do that, this is a fit-up. I'm in the pub, but me comm isn't.

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audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

spaaaaam;

spam! racetrack has joined your party

spam!

spam! cw: blood 'n' guts

spam!

spam!

spam!

spam!

Re: spam!

Re: audio;

audio;

Re: audio;

audio;

audio;

audio - from Bea's comm, but unmistakably Iris' voice