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Post by Vatarian on Jun 10, 2014 23:50:32 GMT -5
A blade cut into her thigh, spraying blood and eliciting a shriek of pain.
"Too slow, X-9."
She lept to the side, barely in time to evade the next scimitar-like weapon that sprung out of a wall to her right, twisting in mid air and clinging to the very same wall several hundred meters away, then leaping to the ceiling.
"Good girl. But don't get comfortable."
A spear erupted from the patch of ceiling she sat on, punching into her stomach. It would have impaled her, had she not heard the hiss of the weapon emerging and dropped from the ceiling.
As she fell, she twist in mid-air, landing on all fours before vaulting across the open floor, evading a pair of plier-like clamps and a massive blow-torch, but falling prey to a collosal block of spiked metal on a lever that swept up viciously fast and struck her in the chin, crushing the chitinous skin there and snapping her head back. The jolt knocks her to the ground. She scrambles dazedly to her feet, drooling blood and spitting out chunks of her own teeth.
"That'll be all today, X-9."
The lights dimmed as the block along with every other trap folded away and the floor gave out an audible shudder, as if eager to rest itself. Perhaps it was hard work bashing Xeno R-9 in the face all day.
She crumples to the floor and lies there, mind ringing with the voice of the man behind the walls.
Xenomorphs do not sleep unless exhausted past their capacity to function. Xeno R-9, who the the UCA lab-staff sarcastically call Xena, falls asleep almost instantly.
She does no awaken to another day of torture, which the voice calls "testing". She awakens manacled, muzzled, and wearing a slender metal collar around her throat.
"We have a new series of test for you today, 9." The voice pauses, and Xena fancies she can hear the creature's lips smacking as if in anticipation of delivering one more piece of useless, patronizing bullshit. Or, as the voices call it, news.
"To begin them, we're going to be moving you to another section of the facility."
With a jolt, Xena is raised off the ground and moving rapidly towards the ceiling, which opens into a new room. Small, round-headed forms examine her. One touches something in his hands.
Xena's entire head fills with white-hot, shimmering pain, and every muscle in her body contracts, drawing the manacles encasing her limbs and tail so tight they bite into her exoskeleton. She spasms once, then squeals quietly to herself, going limp.
"Good. The shock-collar works."
The hateful little prey-thing walks up to her, standing almost face-to-lowerjaw with her shackled frame.
"Now we get to see if you're as smart as the lab-jockies say you are. Wheel her out."
The prey gestures, and he begins to receed as she's yanked up through yet another floor, then through a long series of tubes and vertical corridors, until she finds herself on a pad. A strange hum fills the air. Xena struggles. Are they going to kill her? After all this? Have the hateful little prey-things subjected her to so much pain just to kill her now? The hum is louder, and abruptly Xena is in a new room.
The walls, floor, and ceiling are a comforting black. There is a door at the far end of the room.,
Xena begins to struggle....
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Post by Revenus on Jun 11, 2014 0:57:43 GMT -5
(I'm probably going to join after I work out the kinks with my next kaiju.)
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Post by Vatarian on Jun 11, 2014 2:09:34 GMT -5
Xena strains against the cuffs with a hiss of effort, the manacles biting into her wrists with a raw scraping noise and a clank as they reach the limit of their articulation. One more go and she'll start bleeding.
"She's making progress. Finally."
Quell Am sits above the one-way glass ceiling of Xeno R-9's new quarters, crouched and eyeing the massive xenomorph carefully.
"The shock probably took more out of her than we thought. Perhpas the voltage should be adjusted? We don't want long-term tissue damage."
A voice replies in Quell's ear, rough and dry like sandpaper rasping against splintered wood.
"Noted. We'll let you clean up the mess, then, when she breaks out, slaughters everything in sight, and breeds an army of kaiju-xeno hybrids that overrun have the UCA."
Quell Am bites her lip, sighing quietly. This isn't the first time empathy ahs gotten her in trouble.
"Noted, sir. I'll keep you informed on her progress."
Just as the words leave her mouth, Xeno R-9 tears one wrist free of her manacles with a screech, acid-blood spraying on the floor as the restraint that had been holding her immobile only a moment before sags and droops, dripping free of the rest of the restraining mechanism with a harsh sizzling noise. X-9 presses her mangled wrist to the other cuff, which after a moment of smoking and creaking, pops open as well. Hands free, Xeno R-9, Xena, Quell reminds herself, seizes the muzzle covering her face and rips it off with no apparent effort, throwing her head back and screeching in triumph.
"Shit, she's strong. Those are rated to hold a 200 meter-"
Her comm interupts her.
"I know exactly what they're rated to hold. You think we made her to be one more generic kaiju on a planet full of them? She's a weapon, girl. And she's going to make more weapons for us. Just not out of our fighting staff."
Xena tears her tail free with the assistance of a spattering of acid from her still oozing wrist. Snapping the muscular extension of her spine to and fro, she drives it into the restraints holding her feet with a shower of sparks, denting and warping the UCA's patently durable metal but not breaking it. She bends and smears her wrist against the mangled restraint, which pops free wetly after a few moments. Stepping one foot free of the hoist, she turns and grasps the other restraint with both hands, ebony muscles standing out even further on her angular, corded arms. The metal resists for a moment, then with a groan, yields, tearing away with a crisp, ringing snap.
Xena stands on her two stick-thin rear legs and suddenly realizes how hungry she is. Had she always been this thin? No. The prey hadn't been feeding her. Not for weeks. But things like that could go completely unnoticed if you spent the grand majority of your day dodging super-charged death-traps for the amusement of tiny, pink meat-things.
She was hungry, and she had just wasted dozens of gallons of blood just to get out of the stupid restraints the prey had put her in as a test. Or a joke. Xena knew they had not been meant to hold her long precisely because they had not held her long.
But she had taken her time in getting out. Let the prey think she was slow and stupid. It suited her just fine. They'd be easier to take hy surprise when she found a way out of The Place for real.
Xena stalks towards the door on stick-thin legs that feel too light. She's very, very, very hungry.
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Post by Vatarian on Jun 13, 2014 21:47:12 GMT -5
Xena reaches the door and starts backwards with a hiss as it opens. Leaping to the ceiling, she examins the open doorway for a moment before slipping through and moving along the ceiling of the outside corridor, body drawn tight against it to minimize her profile.
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Post by Revenus on Jun 18, 2014 0:34:05 GMT -5
(I'mma post w/ Rumaka.)
Sh- What the f*ck was that alien- that-that thing? Rumaka hoped it wouldn't rip him apart. He didn't want to pick a fight in this holding area, as that would cause him to be pummeled by both the Hub's concealed armaments, then again later by whoever he fought with, if that brutal confrontation with Cerataurus was any information to go by. Rumaka attempted to communicate with it, speaking in his clearer Standard. "He- hello. I'm Rumaka, I assume you must be new to the U-UCA."
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Post by Vatarian on Jun 18, 2014 16:55:52 GMT -5
"Rumaku. Rumaku."
Xena tested the name like a new flavor, voice soft and dry, frilled head twisting to track Rumaku as her jaw moves.
Then, in a flash, she drops from the ceiling and is instantaneously bunched and leaping once again, this time straight at the horse-
The small dull-grey collar on her neck flashes and her leap falls short, leaving Xena sprawled on the ground, spine arching as she spasms with pain, mouth open in a silent scream of agony.
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Post by Revenus on Jun 18, 2014 17:21:37 GMT -5
"He-hey there! no reason to attack me." Rumaka stated. "You must know now that the UCA will p-punish you for rough-housing. Wait... You weren't shot b-by the Hub's weapons. You must be a research project! I-I probably shouldn't have said that, don't take offense please. I didn't do anything to piss you off, won't make that mistake again. I mean you n-no harm." Rumaka didn't know what to make of this new discovery, but he only hoped those scientists wouldn't push the boundaries set by nature, though he thought it was likely that they were planning on doing exactly that.
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Post by Vatarian on Jun 18, 2014 17:35:12 GMT -5
"Grruh...."
Xena's emaciated body spasmed once again, a white tendril of current licking at her back. Then the collar shut off, leaving Xena to pant and gasp on the floor, teeth exposed in an open-mouthed grimace.
"Everyone hurts. The.... Trick is to hurt them first."
Xena clambers to her feet, tossing her gleaming skull and pursing her lips, which had by then slid back over her teeth. She examined Rumaku closely though she lacked eyes.
"Perhaps you were not the prey I thought you were, but I am starved and anyone is prey, really.
But they seem to think otherwise..."
Xena said 'starved' with no sense of irony or humor. She was being literal. Her body was nothing but smooth, chitinous bones and raised cords of muscle. What Rumaku might have mistaken for spindlyness was in fact literal starvation. Most monsters would have been dead or nearly so at that point, but Xena was not most monsters.
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Post by Revenus on Jun 18, 2014 18:05:02 GMT -5
"Oh sh- you're starving! Wha-what the fuck are those bastards doing to you! You need food. Th-the cafeteria is down the hall. Take a right turn and you'll reach the meat section. I assume you are predatory, correct? You know, I wasn't very fond of humans, but I didn't peg them to be ruthless enough to deprive a kaiju of food. Why are they so interested in you anyway?" Rumaka knew the answer to this, but he knew that if they found out that the equine had leaked the information to their pet project, he would certainly be killed, but if she knew...
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Post by Vatarian on Jun 18, 2014 18:39:21 GMT -5
Xena does not shake her head so much as let it hang to one side.
"Cafeteria. Is that a place with food?"
She was becoming increasingly confused by the prey-not-prey's words.
They sounded sort of familiar but....
Bastards? Humans? Cafeteria? What did any of it mean?
The only word she knew was "predator", which the lab-staff sometimes used. It meant her and those like her in some way. Perhaps predators ate meat? The horse.... How did she know it was a horse? The horse had spoken the word in conjunction with something about eating meat....
Xena knew meat.
"Show me the meat."
It was not a question or a request. The horse would lead her to food or she would kill him and die of electrocution in the process. She was that hungry.
So hungry, it hadn't even occured to her to look for it herself. And "that way".... What if the horse was being dishonest? Sometimes the lab-staff lied to hem She'd gotten very good at picking out the minute differences in their voices, but she didn't trust her judgement at the moment. Better to be sure.
It also didn't occur to her that Rumaku might be leading her into a trap, though it would have had she been functioning on a higher level.
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Post by Revenus on Jun 18, 2014 19:51:06 GMT -5
"F-follow me." Rumaka galloped towards the mess hall, beckoning for Xena to follow. Opening the door, the two were met with masses of platefuls of food. He knew Xena would be attracted to the scent of the meat, the piles of brisket, steak, salmon. He was glad to have helped the poor desperate creature he had met. "I-I'm a vegetarian myself." Rumaka brayed as he walked over to the oceans of genetically altered vegetables, fruits, and grains. As he ate, he pondered one question. Why do this? Why enslave her, why enslave a fellow, likely more intelligent being, only to use them as a tool of destruction, or force her to be the progenitor of a kaiju army?!
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Post by Vatarian on Jun 18, 2014 20:14:12 GMT -5
Xena literally dived at the meat. She did not select a piece or several. She did not plant her face in it and dig in. She leapt onto the platter like it was a living thing and began gulping down massive pieces, jaws snapping and tearing, lips peeled back to expose her teeth up to the gums. As she did so, it became apparant that inside her mouth was another set of jaws, smaller than the first and occasionally extending to snatch at another chunk of animal flesh as the first set swallowed something else, hanging wide open.
The display was frankly rather disgusting. There was blood all over the floor and Xena had knocked a fair amount of meat off the platter and onto the tile, where it sap oozing juices and gathering dirt.
Also, one had to wonder exactly where Xena was putting it all. She had already consumed enough meat to fill her entire torso and was only barely slowing down. She should have blown up like a balloon. Her stomach should have ruptured and killed her. At the very least, she should have stopped eating and been sick. Instead, her abdomen looked only vaguely bloated, as though she'd eaten a meal that was merely large.
Pausing, she snapped her jaws and licked a bit of viscera from her clawed hands, lips settling back over her teeth.
Snatching one last masive hunk of flesh, she dropped from the cart and lept to a wall, then clear to the ceiling, settling there with the chunk of meat impaled on her tail like a shish-kabob, twisting to tear at it as she settled into place.
"She found the food, sir."
The frown was evident in her supervisor's voice as he replied.
"With the assistance of the fucking horse. She's supposed to be a weapon and she can't find a goddamn cafeteria? I think we've wasted our funding."
Quell Am frowned. Wasted funding meant.... Well, it wasn't good for anyone, Xena included.
"Sir, she was electrocuted and starving. I believe she would have been more effective if you hadn't cut of nourishment three we-"
"I believe I don't pay you for your opinion,"
The pause was long, matched only by Quell Am's frown.
"I expect you at A-82 in two hours. We have a lot to discuss."
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Post by Revenus on Jun 18, 2014 21:18:43 GMT -5
The display of Xena's feeding frenzy disgusted Rumaka, but he knew she couldn't be blamed. Her spindly frame told him how malnourished she was. Those scientists... Hate boiled up in the equine's heart every time he thought of how those barbarians tortured, "experimented" on poor Xena. However, Rumaka put aside those thoughts for now, concentrating on an alliance, a friend, even. He wanted to communicate, but noticed her confusion at his earlier remarks. "W-would you like a friend? An ally? Help. Friends help... E-eachother. Find, understand." Rumaka hoped he was understood. He needed help, help to survive in this hellhole of a "Universal Clash Arena".
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Post by Vatarian on Jun 18, 2014 21:41:54 GMT -5
Xena eyed.... Well, not technically. Xena eyed Rumaku from the ceiling, scraping the last hunks of meat from her bladed tail before allowing it to hang and twist like a question-mark below her.
"Friends."
Xena was tasting the word. She did that a lot. She spidered rapidly across the ceiling, then unfolded to hang her lanky frame head-first down towards Rumaku, feet and tail somehow gripping the ceiling. She looked somewhat less deflated than when she had originally emerged. Was it possible that she had already processed the food? No. But at least the fluids had transferred to her limbs and body, filling her arms and legs and chest and neck out to a point where her body no longer looked like it had been carved out of obsidian and razor-wire even if it still looked she might break in half like a fragile sculpture at some points.
"Friends..... Friends help."
She mulled it over for another moment, hands working at the collar around her corded black neck, claws clinking against the textureless grey metal.
"Why would you be my friend?"
Xena was asking more than one question. Why did Rumaku want to be her friend? Why should she be his friend? And what would make him her friend? And unspokenly, Xena was wondering what precisely friends were. She had certainly never had one. She had hardly even met anyone other than this horse. What would she do with a friend?
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Post by Revenus on Jun 18, 2014 22:03:50 GMT -5
"W-We can help each other out. Look, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to see a fellow resident hurt. We might not be the s-same species but-" Rumaka paused and began speaking quietly enough so that he wouldn't be heard by surveillance. I won't sit idly by while you are both tortured by scientists, then f-forced to fight for crowds of beings that will relish in your agony. Besides, if we stick together, we'll have more of a chance to survive. I know you probably don't understand why I want to be your friend, but it's just the way I am that I want to see you alive. It's just my nature. There's no logical explanation. Friends protect each other, and it's just my instinct to protect you."
(Wow
Such speech
Much inspire
Doge lol)
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