Society of Justice 3: Crisis on the Earth

[Lizmichi]

"Yes scanning would be next. First in my body then your own. I want to see how it compares to mine and to your normal state. There could also be an anomaly as well." Alex said putting the three vials of blood in a computer to compare. "Later I'll decode your DNA and see what all is in it and compare it to a none super human." Alex said walking Rowan to the scanner.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Anomaly? Not sure what you mean... But whatever. If something comes up I assume you'll let me know," Rowan/Alex answered as he sat down and proceeded to lie flat on the... what was that, exactly? He had never learned the name for that bit you lie on when they scan you. Mentally shrugging, he simply did as Alex instructed, taking deep quiet breaths to keep himself calm.

 

[Captainguy42]

"Well next stop is the that pyramid Jason wanted to go to to see those sorcerers." Dira told Katie, as the shop keep totaled up the sum of their purchases and handing the bill to Katie.

"It's only a few blocks away, there should be someone there that should know something about the Key ritual."

 

[elementsoul]

Tyson sighed. Fuck! "You have money. Pay someone to teach you skills so you won't be useless without your armor. You probably should have started there in the first place." Tyson said as he got up, walked to the coffee table, placed the remote on it, and left down the hall towards to rooms. As soon as he was out of view he stopped and put his left hand on the wall before leaning forward in pain and coughing up more blood into his hand.

Tyson started walking down the hall towards his own room. He walked by Levi's door and stopped. Should I ask him? He might know. It was in his head so I wouldn't be surprised. He knows what its like too. But he's finally starting to look better. Should I really risk resetting how he's feeling? Should I... Should I risk whatever happened to me in there happening out here? Could I become a greater risk to the team? Could this become something worse if I loose control again? I may have to go back and dig up the notes on myself. Shit. Tyson reluctantly raised his hand and knocked on Levi's door.

 

[socialtangent]

While working with a drill, Levi became faintly aware of a rhythmic knocking through the din of metal-on-metal contact. Taking his finger from the trigger of the drill, the power tool came to a stop with a final whir and turned to face the door. The knocking sound seemed to have come from the door, at least. Is somebody there? he wondered. Taryn was still intently staring at her laptop screen, wearing her high-performance noise cancelling headphones. Obviously, she didn't hear anything. Hrm. Might as well check. Somewhat frustrated from the unwanted distraction, Levi walked over to his door and unlocked it. He opened it and saw Tyson standing on the other side.

"Uh...I'm a bit busy right now, Tyson, but what do you need?" he asked, trying not to sound impolite.

 

[elementsoul]

Tyson's knock was answered by Levi and he could tell that he was interrupting him. "Sorry to bother you, but I need a question answered and you're the only one left here that likely knows the answer." Tyson's throat dried a little as he spoke but he continued, "I was hoping that you might know what happened to me after I grabbed Victor?"

 

[Lizmichi]

Alex spent hours doing tests on Rowan from scans to more tests with his blood. It seems his blood as Alex was alike but was still missing some key parts of her own DNA so it meant he couldn't replicate powers as well. On the MRI scans it showed his bone structure was just like hers with a few minor details but nothing that would blow his cover.

After all the tests where done she interviewed Rowan to find out how and when he got his powers. She was amazed to find out the details of the testing and the experiments they put him through. They also talked about ways she can make his shifting more practical from removing the cracking nose that was produced when he shifted to lowering his waiting period. Over all she was impressed with his powers and was excited to read the full test results, results she'd have to wait a few weeks or more for.

"Well it seems we're as done as we can get for now. Now to see what Eric can dig up and what the test results tell us. It will need time to process and decode your DNA but so far it seems... something is off about your DNA; more so then with any other super. It's off in such a way that it's not.." Alex couldn't bring her self to finish the sentence. The fact is she was still dealing with the idea of not being human due to her sick fuck of a father.

 

[socialtangent]

Levi's heart sank at the mention of Victor. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to think about the incident in his mind for a little while at least. Focusing on Tyson's question, he struggled to remember the final moments of the brutal fight. His brow furrowed as he fought to remember the hazy details of what happened just before he entered the fray. The details suddenly flew by his mind's eye in a gruesome flurry.

Victor's body mutilated. His flesh severely burned and bleeding from many wounds.

Much of the team lay unconscious or incapacitated.

Steven, Taryn, and Tyson remained.

Tyson attacked. Unleashed a powerful sound wave that only grew more intense...

Something was wrong.

Tyson was changing.

His features began to distort and change. His jaw and nose lengthened. His ears grew longer into a sharp point. Claws grew from his hands, impaling themselves into Victor's arms. His eyes became solid black. In the most macabre display, large wings sprouted from the flesh of his back. The wings of a bat.

The new, horrid abomination that had once been Tyson screeched, violently rupturing Victor's eardrums. It had Victor at its mercy, and then suddenly vanished.

Reality returned to Levi like a splash of cold water. Bracing himself against the doorway, he took a moment to regain his composure. He took a moment to make sure the figure standing before him was actually Tyson, and not the horrid bat creature he saw in his memory. Levi took a deep breath before speaking.

"I saw...I saw you grabbing Victor. You unleashed a sound wave, but then you...changed. Your body morphed into some kind of...half man, half bat creature. Your face distorted into a grotesque mask. I saw claws...claws growing from your hands and embedding themselves into Victor's flesh...wings sprouting from your back. You screeched, even louder than before, but then you suddenly vanished..."

Tyson seemed to remain silent during Levi's account. When he finished, the man seemed to be disturbed by what he had told him. Tyson quickly thanked Levi and walked away, his expression heavy with worry. Whatever had happened to him in there, Levi was sure it wasn't good. Did he have his own Victor deep inside his mind? Perhaps he wasn't the only one who knew what it was like to share your mind with an unspeakable evil?

Levi sighed and closed the door. He leaned against it for a bit and stared at the floor. Any sort of good mood that had been building up today was now gone. In its place, the emptiness and despair returned.

 

[CounterAttack]

"What? What is it?" Rowan asked, confused by Alex's words. The idea of finding out Eric's results later on - they would be at least interesting to find out - had been driven out quickly when she had moved onto the new subject. He knew something had to be different about his DNA; that was kind of a given when he had the power to alter his own DNA and assume different forms.

 

[Lizmichi]

"... You might not be human, just like I'm not human." Alex said carefully. She was quite walking back to her car and sighed getting in. "I know this isn't easy to hear but.. it's sadly most likely true." Alex said unable to look him in the eye.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Not human? I... I don't understand," Rowan said with a perplexed expression, the truth evident in his tone as he got in the passenger side and Alex began driving away from the Gentron building. "I look human, I think human thoughts, I believe I have what can be perceived as a soul, I've been conceived and brought into the world as any human would - er, most humans. Apologies, but I digress. Surely if I follow these constraints, and since I cannot not follow them, I must be human. Right?"

Alex didn't answer immediately when he finished speaking. That was enough confirmation that his theory was incorrect. Rowan now realised that if the test results came back and confirmed what Alex had said, then that meant that he wasn't like anyone else on the face of the Earth. Unique in a way that had changed him permanently; he doubted there was a way to remove the virus from his body after it had been there for eight years. Shaken to the core by this revelation, Rowan looked out at the passing world without registering what he saw. He couldn't comprehend it now, so how bad would it be if Alex's guess was right?

 

[Lizmichi]

"Look Rowan, as I told you I'm not genetically human ether. We're something more, but it's the one change in our DNA that makes use different. I bleed water, and you can change how you look, both of those things make us different and there's nothing wrong with that. I understand how you must feel and I wish I could tell you that what I'm saying is wrong but I can't and I won't lie to you." Alex said driving through Nova City.

 

[tsatoma]

"Yeah let's go check those pyramids out next! I'll go and get Ethan," Leland said once their next destination was decided upon, heading out of the nursery. It took him a moment to adjust to the brightness of the sun outside, standing at the entrance for a minute before heading to where the car had been parked. He saw Ethan poking what looked like a praying mantis on the sidewalk, telling him that they would be heading to the pyramids soon. Ethan held the mantis and asked if it was magical.

"I...don't think so. Just because we're in a magical city doesn't mean that everything is magical. It's just a normal mantis," Leland replied as he watched Ethan sadly put the bug back down, only for Talbot to hop off Leland's shoulder and swoop the bug up once Ethan turned it's back on it.

"Uhh...yeah so how 'bout them pyramids eh? They look pretty amazing," he said to Ethan quickly, putting his arm around his shoulder as he led him back to the entrance to wait for the others.

 

[elementsoul]

Tyson had gotten his anwser from Levi but it was one he wasn't prepared to hear. The thought of what Levi described happening to himself himself both disturbed him and chilled the blood in his veins to the point before they would freeze as he walked away. He had barely got a thank you out before leaving, his face openly exposing his emotions and thoughts as he walked away. A pit of worry and despair filled Tyson for having something like that happen and unknowingly bringing it up with Levi completely destroying any progress forward with his mental recovery.

Tyson made it to his room and walked in. The memory of the same creature that Levi described filled his mind and followed by the relived memory. Tyson was beyond overwhelmed at this point and ran into his bathroom, vomiting into his toilet. He was at a person loss. Tyson flushed the toilet and rinsed his mouth out in the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror, the normal confidence and strength that was held in his face and eyes was gone.

Tyson started to think of something he could due to figure out what was going on. One thing came into his head. This was something he wanted to avoid. He'd have to go to where he hid the evidence against the politicians, a place where he didn't want to go to till it was time to expose them. However this was an emergency and it couldn't be helped.

Tyson walked into his room and gathered a few things and put them into his bag. He retrieved his fake passport from a special hiding spot in his room and walked back to the lounge. Tyson stopped beside Garrus and spoke to him, "I'm sorry about the short notice but I'll be gone for the next two weeks dealing with some personal issues." Before allowing for a response to be made Tyson rushed out of the building and started up his motorcycle that he received from Richard.

Tyson headed to a few stores and grabbed some supplies that he'd need. Tyson then started to head to the airport but stopped along the way at a familiar place. It was Little's Cafe. The place looked incredibly busy and he wanted to get the to the information as soon as possible, but Tyson still had said he would be back in a week and he wasn't about to lie about that while being directly outside it. Stepping inside Tyson took in the normally familiar scene which was now a storm of chaos. Tommy was right, the amount of business had increased but the look of stress covered all the workers' faces and the place was now loud and noisy.

Tyson approached the hostess who was looking down at a sheet of paper and asked, "Where's Erica?" "Sir, I can't tell you where," the hostess cut her sentence off as she looked up and recognized Tyson. "Sorry Tyson. She's in the back in her parent's office." "Thanks," Tyson replied as he started walking to the back. As he entered the office Tyson saw Erica sitting with her parents.

Tyson skipped the normal hellos and quickly said, "I'm pretty sure Erica relayed this to you already but I'm sorry for the trouble the people I brought here have caused." Tyson started coughing as soon as he finished talking. A response came from Erica's father, "Its all right. Its not that much trouble." Tyson knew this was a lie but didn't say anything but instead went straight to the reason he came here. Tyson sat down beside Erica and waited for a few seconds in order to gain his words.

"I guess I should start by confirming something that you probably have assumed at this point. I'm a member of the Society of Justice," Tyson said in a reluctant voice. "You can't tell anyone however. My identity can't be made public at this point so if anyone asks just tell them I'm not a member and that I was with them because I had a breakfast meeting with Richard Masterson regarding product development contracts and that because the Promenade was attacked and their kitchen was destroyed we invited everyone else to come."

"Okaaaaaaaayyyyy," came the reply from everyone else in the room as they all seemed a little confused at what Tyson was saying.

"I know I said I'd come back to talk today but something came up and I have to go." Tyson said standing up. Erica's face turned a little sad but still looked covered in confusion and she stood up and hugged Tyson. Tyson was a little thrown off but didn't shake her off and instead hugged her back feeling he at least owed her that much.

Tyson quickly left the building after Erica let go of him. Getting back on his motorcycle Tyson quickly went to the airport, bought a ticket, boarded the plane and was off to Peru in order to get the experiment records of himself.

 

[CounterAttack]

"I know, I know. It's just... Something that I believe was a fundamental part of me - part of my life, my existence - that's just gone in a heartbeat," Rowan said quietly. "You say we're something more... but I don't know if that's true." He felt hollow, as if there was nothing more to him than a physical form, a shell in which something had once lived, but like a hermit crab it had left him and moved onto a different host.

 

[tsatoma]

And so everyone finally got their shit done (Alex and Rowan finished the testing, the New Eldorado crew finally got back home for dinner, and Brian's weapon was being made), and we were finally able to timeskip!

Two weeks later at 10:30 in the morning...

Ethan awoke to the sound of flushing coming from the museum bathroom that he currently called home, groggily looking up and taking off his eye mask and seeing a construction worker walk out of the bathroom...without washing his hands.

A few minutes of loud beeping and pistol waving later and the construction worker walked out again, his hands sparkling from cleanliness after having wash them a dozen times before Ethan let him leave. Ethan walked out a second later in his footie-pajamas and headed over and into the lounge, waving at anyone who was already there (mostly construction workers working inside now that the outside was done) as he started to root through all the things in the fridge for something to eat.

 

[Lizmichi]

Alex woke up back at the Masterson Mansion to find Sam, yet again, on Richard's chest. She rolled her eyes getting out of Richard's arms trying to not wake him and walked to the bath room to take yet another pregnancy test and to get ready for the day.

She used the test strip and got in the shower deciding not to wait for it just by waiting around. Her fingers danced in her hair scrubbing the shampoo around her hair from root to tip. "Hmmm maybe I should get my hair cut. Having it this long is turning out to be in my way most of the time, something shoulder length or less." Alex said thinking out loud to her self.

After about 10 minutes she stepped out of the shower and dried her self off walking over to the sink, then her heart sunk, negative. She still wasn't or couldn't get pregnant. Before she knew it tears ran down her cheeks as she sunk to the tail floor, the test falling a few feet away from her. She pulled her legs to her chest and shook some not even bothering to put a bath robe on. She didn't care about anything at that moment really, only the big blue negative on the little screen is what mattered.

Thoughts started to race through her head like bees. Maybe something's wrong with me. Maybe I was hurt while in Snake Ally so I can't produce a child. Maybe dad forced it to be this way so he could do as he wished with the baby. God only knows.

Alex started sniking deeper into a depressed state, she went from crying softly to sobbing followed by incoherent babble with only a hand full of words even able to be recognized; words such as useless, infertile and freak. The truth was she hated what had been done to her and had spent the last year or so trying to find a way to revert her back to what she should be. It was almost done, in fact it was done. All she had to do was use it. Her blood would be blood, her water powers gone and her body would slowly change.

 

[socialtangent]

The sooner these guys are gone, the better.

Levi rolled over onto his side, facing the wall. Sleep had not come to him in any meaningful form. Between the sounds of construction and his still-vivid nightmares, there was no point in trying anymore. Even though it had been three weeks since the British apparition's demise, Victor still haunted Levi's dreams. The twisted, evil parody of his own face still filled him with dread. His detached and soulless voice still echoed through his mind. Although gone now, Victor made damned sure that he wouldn't be forgotten.

Giving up any notion of rest, he groggily stood from his bed and shuffled into the restroom. The face that greeted him in the mirror was barely recognizable. Dark grey bags of fatigue sat under his eyes, the result of his lack of sleep. He hadn't shaved in at least a week, and hadn't bathed for about five days. A thick black stubble ran along his chin to the bottom of his neck. His hair was messy and unkempt, sticking up in several directions.

Levi frowned, splashed some water on his face, and exited the restroom. He toyed with the idea of getting dressed and seeing what the others were doing, but tossed the idea as quickly as it came. He simply had no will to leave his room. Unceremoniously, he flopped back onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling. In the privacy of his room, Levi silently wallowed in his despair and fatigue.

 

[NeoAC]

It had been a rough couple of weeks for Brian. It seemed like he always had to be on guard, he was always on edge, even with the door to his room firmly locked. He only left to get food, and occasionally check on how the weapon was coming. Who knows how many keys that bloody Doctor had? Plus all the Call of Duty playing probably wasn't helping much either. It was playing havoc on his mind, and on his social life. He had been texting Kayla at a fairly solid pace now that he finally got confirmation from her that he had received an actual number and wasn't adverse to going out with him, but he kept putting off the first date, for fear that while he was out trying to enjoy himself, that quack would get in, and plant some nerve toxin or weird DNA shit in his room, and that would be the end of him. He could tell Kayla was getting a little put off so he finally set a date for it. Today. It seemed so long ago when he told her, but he it was. He had woken up early, showered and shaved, decided what to wear, made himself look good, but he was still lying in bed, wondering if it was worth the risk.

The weapon helped matters. Taryn and Levi had finally gotten it to him yesterday. Apparently there were some logistical problems trying to get the necessary amount of electricity generated in a small space to be usable as a weapon. Or something like that, it all went over Brian's head. The point was it was a hockey stick capable of either smashing someone's head open, slicing some Doctor's head off, or shocking that idiotic walking malpractice case into the next world and beyond. It wouldn't do to have it out on a date though. It also wouldn't do to be taking her out via a bus into the city. Maybe he could score someone else's wheels for the day. Just as a loaner.

He got off the bed and opened the door a crack, peering outside. The coast appeared to be clear. He grabbed his stick (it was much more than a stick now but it was just easier this way) and slowly made his way to the kitchen. Surely some of the other members of the Society had to be sleeping in late. With the construction entering it's final phases, things were getting a bit quieter again, easier to sleep in, start passing breakfast and thinking about brunch. He went to the fridge and grabbed some OJ to start the day off with. No fried potatoes this morning, wouldn't do to have garlic powder on the breath. Instead, he opted for some waffles. Tasty, tasty waffles.

 

[Pm0n3y]

Jason groggily awoke, the combined smell of saw dust, wet and drying paint, and other foreign stenches wafted through the vent on his door and invaded his space. Taking it as an incentive to start the day, the young Keyholder sat up straight, the event that took place two weeks prior still fresh in his mind. It was interesting sight to see the elders of his kind, their insightful knowledge of the Key turned into a small glimmer of hope for Jason's dilemmas...If only for the time being. He smiled at the thought as Erebus greeted him, using his recently purchased remote (well, it's more like a keyboard [http://www.logitech.com/en-us/smartTV/revue] than a remote, but I digress) to turn on his oversized television. Typing in 'wake-up music' into the search bar on the home screen, an elongated playlist appeared, music of all types before him. Selecting the 'random' option on the screen, Jason rose from his bed, the catchy tunes swelling up from the freshly installed sound system as he collected a fresh set of undergarments, happily singing along to the music as he made his way towards his bathroom to begin his morning rituals.