The Rebirth of Veronica (Phase One)

[craaazyisland]

[ooc: PLOT POST IS HERE! Read it!]

He stalked through the hallways like a shadow, moving too quickly for anyone to keep a bead on him for long. There almost seemed to be a purpose in his movement as he made his way through the dark corridors of the ship, though it was impossible to tell where he was headed. Perhaps the young man whose body had been hijacked was exerting some kind of control, or perhaps Veronica was doing the driving.

Whatever the case, the Tyrant made his way to the City.

He emerged from the tunnels and into the wide open space, at last free of the cramped hallway. He took a few steps into the streets and sniffed the air, smelling human blood. He roared, a horrible and twisted noise, then headed into the streets.

She demanded they all bow to her. They were little more than prey for the Queen in the grand scale of things. These thoughts rang hollow in a primal mind, though, but he knew what he had to do.

They would all die.

Comments

Project Gunsmithery

[morphitudinous]

Over in the Engineering lab, the crew has their orders: build some type of weapon that will stun Steve and administer the suppressant. Preferably both in quick succession.

Since the orders were given, Billy had focused all his creative energy on imagining ways to build the weapon. Obviously the shot would need to be powerful enough to stun someone as large, energetic, and angry as Steve's new form. It would also need to act quickly, before the monster could retaliate.

With that in mind, he summoned any available engineers and frowned. "We don't have too long, but I have a few base designs. I have the injection covered, but I need help with the stunning mechanism."

Re: Project Gunsmithery

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

Angie had come running when she'd seen that they'd need a weapon. Especially one that was going to need to be built quickly. And she was good at that.

"So, basically, we need something that'd take down a raging Hulk." Angie was also an unrepentant comic book geek. "Actually, we might need something stronger than that."

Re: Project Gunsmithery

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie had hurried down as soon as he had received the summons, and was now standing there with arms folded against his chest, listening to what needed to be done. He wasn't as good as some of the others in terms of skill - but he has built a gun with Billy before, and he can certainly help in some ways.

"Right. Where do we start?"

[morphitudinous]

"The internal mechanisms are simple enough," he mumbles, thinking back on their earlier escapades. "Our original gun was structurally sound, it was the ammunition that was the problem---so we'll need to make sure we have the right suppressant. That suppressant injection also needs some electrical stunning component attached."

Billy's built guns before, but never in a situation as critical as this. He nodded at Angie's assessment, trying to channel that stress into something positive.

He lays out their stored spare gun parts and starts selecting the common ones that any type can use. "We need to acquire the suppressant, design the cartridge to pierce him deeply enough to have an effect, and give it plenty of a stunning charge."

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

After a moment, Angie creates a small holographic projector. One that brings up a schematic of a fairly common design for tranquilizing gun. It seemed a good place to start. "So, the cartridge with the suppressant also needs to have the stunning charge?" That was going to be a challenge. "Any parts we don't have, I can fabricate."

[bonnypiperlad]

Studying the schematic for a moment, Jamie frowns faintly. "So ye want to place the charge in the cartridge itself, somehow. Can it be boosted at all from the gun, or won't that work?"

He glances over at the other two with a slightly apologetic expression. "I can help build the gun, or get the suppressant-thing if someone has it, but I think ye or Billy will have to do the part where ye put the electricity in."

[morphitudinous]

"You're right. It's worth trying to put the stun-shot first and administer the suppressant immediately afterward, but I've been thinking---if we could trigger the electricity immediately upon impact with a force trigger and have the suppressant enter as it pierces him, that could work too"

With that, he sketches up a quick blueprint of what he means, drawing on the available parts. "Let's work on the gun. Angie, can you handle the suppressant cartridge when we get the dose?"

Billy wipes the sweat from his brow, feeling fatigue seep into his stress. Something about this isn't normal, but the devastating energy drain hasn't set in yet.

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

Angie nods. "I should be able to manage that, no problem. As long as I can imagine what it should look like and work like, I can make it." There are very, very good parts to her abilities, as long as she has stuff to work with.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, let's go, then," Jamie says, seemingly eager to get going on the construction of the gun. He's a little worried, though. Something about Billy seems slightly off, but he can't quite put a finger on it.

Maybe, he figures, it's just the stress of having to get the gun made quickly. Moving over to the worktable, he starts picking out the pieces that will form the base and setting those to the side to try and make things easier.

[morphitudinous]

In that case, Billy's got the barrel, trigger parts, and welding tools. They're assembled as quickly as he can manage it, still taking much longer than he'd like. When they were about halfway done, he checked his timer.

"Angie, Science is delivering the suppressant in a minute or so. You should be---good to go then," he grunts, having paused with a flash of pain on his face.

Reaching covertly under the table for his morpher, he drew some energy from the coin. The building pain in his body suggested that he was going to need it.

Damn. Katara and Renne are getting hurt out there, aren't they?

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

Jamie wasn't the only one realizing that something was off about Billy. Especially since, well, she's looking at him when that flash of pain goes over his features. However, given her teammates, she doesn't say anything, though she plans to keep an eye on the young man.

"Right," she says instead, finding a piece of scrap metal that's not being used for anything and starts breaking it down through use of her nanotech to start molding it into whatever they'll need. "It'll be good to find out the viscosity. I'll need to know how easy it will be to inject."

[morphitudinous]

It's still going fairly well. Billy keeps a grip on the table as he sends a request for a previous scan of the monster or some sort of estimate, trying to keep from wobbling. "I requested that now. Should be sent to you soon."

Drawing a little more power after a few more minutes of work, he nods to Jamie. "Perfect. Let's just hold the barrel on standby until Angie has the cartridges, to make sure they're the right size."

Inside his head, he tries to wall his mind off from the drain Katara and Renne's injuries are causing. It's getting progressively worse, but he hopes he can hold out until this is done.

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

"Thank you." She doesn't have an omnicomm on her. She has stuff in her head to deal with stuff like that. The hologram adds another projection once the information comes in, giving them a look at the Tyrant. Which gets a whistle out of her and she shakes her head. "Don't worry about the barrel. I can fashion these to work in whatever you have."

Walls Come Down

[morphitudinous]

((In a separate thread for ease/quickness of backthreading!))

As they finally finished and passed the weapon into the proper hands, Billy had the fleeting thought that this Bond concept was serious trouble sometimes.

His arms trembled as he leaned against the table, and he definitely looked pale. Keeping himself separate and stable enough to finish the job had drained most of of his mental strength and the Power Coin's backup charge---he was in serious trouble.

"Wish I could help...friends injured. Medbay," he managed to say to the other engineers, staggering over to lean against the doorframe.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Billy!" Ignoring the left over debris on the worktable, Jamie rushes over to his friend's side to try and keep him from falling over completely. "Here, lean on me."

Not for the first time, Jamie has to wonder if all the good things that come from the Bond are worth what happens when the other people in it are hurt.

"I've seen this before," he explains in an attempt to forestall any immediate questions from Angie. It may not work, but he doesn't want to waste time with explanations when his friend is as bad off as he is now. He also doesn't want to think about what might have happened to the others right now. First things first.

"It's worse this time, I think. We need to get him to Medbay. Can ye help?"

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

Angie starts, rushing to Billy's other side just as Jamie gets there. There are a hundred questions running through her head, but she just nods and steps back.

This time, what she makes doesn't need more than what she can pull out of the air around her. Under her hands, a floating stretcher comes into existence. "Here. Get him onto this. It'll be faster than us trying to carry him."

[morphitudinous]

Billy's going to be in a world of trouble the moment this passes, he realizes. His eyes widen, prompting him to shake his head, but even that hurts. "It's not that far."

Even as he tries to maintain the shields long enough to get himself there, pushing away from Jamie, the splitting headache worsens. Were his shields strong enough to deal with two critically injured Bondeds at once (and they will be as soon as this is over and the other two catch wind of what happened), it would be just a mild pressure. This? Agony.

Accepting that he won't make it long enough to find out, he focuses the last of his energy on walling off his inner consciousness for survival. That means surrendering here, but he'll awaken again without too much harm done after a deep slumber.

"Look for them," he asks Jamie, slumping down on the stretcher with a moan of pain and a silent prayer, "and make sure Renne gets this." Billy's left fist loosens, revealing a small glowing stone.

One of his last thoughts for the moment is that there had better be a Renne to give it to.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye." Jamie is about to try and help Billy over to the stretcher, but is saved from having to do so as Billy manages to make it there under his own power.

He reaches out to take the small glowing stone, although his expression doesn't grow any less worried. In fact, it does the opposite. What if there isn't a Renne to give the stone to? Then what will happen?

He'll try Medbay first. Maybe he'll luck out and Renne will be there. If not, he's going to have to figure out some way to slip free of Angie and try and go to the City to find out what's happened. Somehow, Jamie doesn't think that will be easy.

Curling his fingers around the small stone protectively, he turns to her and says anxiously, "Come on, let's go."

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

Angie looks between them, then shakes her head as she gets herself and the stretcher moving. "I have no idea what's going on, but do what you have to do." Because, obviously, this Renne is important. So slipping away from her isn't going to be difficult.

She's a hero in her world. She understands.

[morphitudinous]

"Thank you," Billy manages to say sadly, finally slipping into unconsciousness with a pained look and a cold sweat.

Only time and the strength of his friends can tell if they'll all recover.

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie follows, still casting worried glances at his friend on the stretcher. He's got his hand clutched tightly around the glowing stone, so as not to drop it or lose it.

He's tempted not to say anything at all, but he knows Angie has questions, and it's really not fair to her to keep her in the dark. "I think something might have happened to Renne. It's a wee bit hard to explain, but..."

How he can put this? "There's this...thing they have, where one knows if the other's hurt. I've not seen it do this before, though."

Billy managed to stay conscious the last time.

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

"Psychic bond?" Hey, it wasn't that unusual in her own world, honestly. "Right. Okay, that makes a certain amount of sense. I haven't seen something like this myself, but there's literature about it. Back home." She nods. "You saw the size of that Tyrant. Anybody going against it likely got hurt badly. He'll be okay."

She doesn't qualify it with 'probably'. Jamie likely knew that part of it.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye." Jamie did. And while part of him is relieved that he doesn't have to try an explain the concept further, that 'probably' means he's still worried. And, perhaps a little puzzled at something billy had said earlier.

"He said 'them'. I wonder who else he meant by that?"

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

She frowns at that as they keep moving through the halls. "Well. Either he was getting so addled by pain and what he was feeling that he was mistaken...or there's at least one other person in the psychic bond." A pause as she considers, then, "That may explain why it's worse this time. If it was one before, but now at least a second?"

She doesn't like that. At all.

[bonnypiperlad]

The thought of that causes Jamie to stop walking for a moment, a look of disbelief appearing on his face. "At least a second?" He doesn't stay still, however, and hurries to catch up with Angie and the stretcher that's carrying Billy. He shakes his head.

"Maybe so. But it would have to be someone both Renne and Billy really trusted, and there's not many people I'd say would fit that description." Only three that Jamie can think of, as a matter of fact.

"It could just be what ye said, though, about the pain. If Renne was hurt badly enough..." He frowns faintly. "Maybe I should see if I can find Katara, just in case."