The flight to the city went fairly smoothly, despite the gagging clouds of smog that emanate from Geneva Prime. I felt like I'd have to clean out my sinuses with a giant pipe-cleaner, but I regress.. When I placed High Dive on the roof and my own feet landed, I suddenly felt the firm possibility that I might see another Vorax again, on this very day! My rising excitement could barely be contained, and all that HD's pipsqueak brother could go on about was how his neck was in so much trouble, and how he would only go so far with us. There was so much love between them that one of their fingers could have been chopped off, and the other wouldn't offer help. Man, the things you take for granted when your population is booming.
*sigh*
Despite my grumbling, he really was perfect at getting us safely to the site of the lab; well, at least around the corner from the lab. We had to knock out the three guards that were grumbling about how they were there on duty, instead of getting knocked up. We gave them a close alternative, I think. After getting in the lab a sing-songy voice called to us from behind a door, and HD immediately did some stellar work with cloth, chemicals and a lighter to get the door open.
Imagine my gigantic disappointment (literally) when therein resided some bedsore-ridden hulk of a man that was not the elegant Vorax I was seeking. Arghh! Luckily despite his bulk (and balls that High Dive's brother could have really used) he knew exactly how to get us where we wanted to be. So up the elevator we went until we hit a ceiling door that HD was more than happy to destroy.
When she set the explosive, Tanuki the hulk and I backed out into the hallway, only to be greeted by Ravers'R'us (TM). One guy was wicked with his floating chain and the other very nearly severed my head from my body. *whew* It was way too close. I got a couple good cuts in myself, but I was very glad when some girl dragged chain-boy away.
By the time I made it through the hole in the elevator, I was in a large room filled to the brim with havoc. Bullets were flying everywhere. Bless HD, she was already running toward my fellow Vorax, standing in the middle of the room. He was horribly chained and at some strange half-way point in his shift. What had they been doing to him!?!?! I made my way through the barrage with a few lucky rolling flips and noticed Tanuki spinning on his toes and making his blithe way to the white stone hanging above my fellow's head. I heard Tanuki happily exclaim, "Mana!"... Then there was nothing.
Everything went white, then came back, but without the noise. I felt like I was walking through cotton air. Now a white and glowing cloud floated in the center of the room, and I quailed as red tendrils came from the cloud and began to wrap around my Vorax. No! I ran to push him out of the cloud, but some mechified beat me there. Luckily the smoking-man didn't seem to intend any harm. As I ran, I smacked the glowing purple blade of some guy chopping it up way too close to my compatriot. Just a warning, no time for anything else now.. I caught up and took the Vorax's hand - finally - and he squeezed back. Exaltation! He's going to make it!
Unfortunately, my joy was short-lived. When he opened his eyes to look upon the mechified, blood poured out, and incomprehensible words flowed from his lips. The mechified dropped him as if he'd seen his own ghost - and ran. I tried and tried to call back the Vorax that I knew was in there, but the red tendrils possessed him. Everything in the room began to levitate like the creature.
I made to run away as well..the mechified beckoned to me..but then I realized that my dear, dear fellow Vorax had become an aberration and had nothing of noble avian left in him at all. These formative moments might be the only chance anyone had to destroy this new creature, so I turned around and struck out with my scythe. I struck true. Breath. Then some incredible force emanated from the creature and he rushed out the window, with me still attached. We had well over 300 stories to fall, then into the mine. That was just the beginning of a very looong adventure.
Ruins
Cities
1 comment:
It all seems so different when viewed exclusively from Una's perspective.
I suppose the same will be true for every one of us. From Una's perspective, it's a story about how her and High-Dive staged a daring raid to rescue a Vorax prisoner. From Rei's perspective, it's a story about trying to prevent that damn machine-woman's idiotic plan from getting Moses killed, which gets a little crazy but the mission perameters are still fulfilled. If Kiyoshi were to tell the story, I'm not sure that High-Dive or Una would feature in it at all. If Moses told it, I doubt Kiyoshi would get more than a mention, and so on.
All that to say, I like it very much.
Post a Comment