The Change [open]

[pretty_lethal]

Neither Rachel nor Marco had any real trust in the medical situation they'd both been forced into. It seemed like they had been tricked and betrayed; and it meant that there were instantly a few more people crossed off their list of who they should trust when they escaped. In fact-- it left them at each other, it seemed, when they did escape from medical, two cockroaches slipping out of sight while medical was distracted from them.

Of course, this was compounded by the fact that several communications posts went up shortly after-- one announcing a Quarantine (thankfully they'd gotten out in time for that) and one announcing their abilities to the crew to warn them. And then things got worse-- Marco's morphing began to get weird, and Rachel... literally split into two.

This wasn't going well.

((ooc: As Blue's OOC post said, we need to make sure that only the people signed up for taking the two 'groups' (Nice Rachel and Marco in one corner, just Mean Rachel in the other) to Quarantine are the ones who actually do that. Other than that, feel free to try and do it! Tag under the header for whoever you want to thread with and feel free set the scene, and ours will enter in. :) ))

Comments

When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Sakura was irritated knowing she'd been distracted enough to help allow two of their patients to escape, and bothered furthermore that on top of that, Rachel shared the same "morphing" ability as Marco. Kang had mentioned knowing she could morph a bear, but if she had anything close to Marco's number of possible morphs, and if Marco hadn't been talking himself up at the time, that left dozens unaccounted for.

Not to mention the possibility of gaining more. She wondered how willing they'd be to do as much with people, remembering Marco's reaction to her henging him in the sensoriums. If that'd been a show of it's own, they had the potential to choose to be anyone. If it wasn't, then it was more likely they'd stick to animal forms.

On a ship roughly the size of a moon. This was sounding better and better all the time.

She rounded the corner, wishing that she had some kind of sense for what Rachel herself felt like, like she did with Marco. She wasn't a sensor-type, so it would be useless for tracking, but at least then she'd be able to recognize her in close proximity.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel, turning the same corner, bumped hard into the pink haired girl who was coming the opposite way. Slamming headlong, she took a step back, and her voice instantly rose to a full on shout, indignant and angry:

"What the hell is your problem?!"

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Sakura stepped back, halfway into an apology when she registered who she was looking at. or rather, how was shouting at her.

"Rachel?" Sakura moved back out of her immediate reach. "We've been looking for you."

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[psychicbear]

"Yeah?" Rachel asked-- though really it was more of a snap. This girl obviously recognised her-- and Rachel felt like she might have seen her around too, actually. "And who the hell is 'we'?" she asked, voice low.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

"Medical," Sakura replied as calmly as she could, not quite able to hit the placating note she really wished for. "Everyone else who's concerned for you and Marco.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

Of course she was from Medical. After the stupid omnicomm messages going around about sickness or whatever, and about her and Marco, it figured that no one was going to leave her alone. Maybe she should be going after them, so that they left her the hell alone.

"I don't give a crap what happens to Marco. But leave me alone or else." 'Or else' was vague-- and she didn't really have anything in mind. Kill her maybe? She'd figure that out if she had to.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Nice friend you have here, Marco. The way this reversal worked didn't favor that bond, apparently.

Sakura straightened, tense. Threats didn't go over well with her, if she'd tossed her own fair share of them at people over the years. She'd always thought she'd meant them.

"I won't do that," she said simply, sounding even calmer than before. "I won't leave someone alone when they can be a danger to themselves and others, unintentionally." It was giving her the benefit of any doubt. "You're not the only one affected. This isn't about targeting you specifically. I'm asking for you to help everyone experiencing symptoms out by coming back with me to Medical, so we can figure out a solution and stop this from getting worse."

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

What did this girl think she was, an idiot? She wasn't going to listen to this crap! It was stupid, anyway-- why the hell should she care about those other people.

"Yeah right," she snapped. "If this is a trap it's a really stupid one," she added, making her feelings clear right off the bat. "Why should I care about figuring it out for everyone else? I'm fine, so whatever. No back off."

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

"Sorry. I can't do that. If you won't come willingly, I'll have to do what I can on my own."

Which started off with Sakura darting to the side, aiming to end up behind Rachel. "Sorry about this," she said, wasting time where she really should have been acting.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

"Fuck you," Rachel snapped vehemently, bristling-- at first figuratively, then literally. As Sakura paused, Rachel quickly began to start morphing, her body changing shape as brown fur began to sprout from her skin.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Sakura made to slam into Rachel's side as the changes started manifesting, hoping the impact would leave whatever she was turning into off-balance. Kang had only mentioned one form for Rachel, and she figured she'd be seeing if his recollection was accurate momentarily.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

As Rachel was slammed into by the other girl she let out a noise-- something that was a mangled mesh of an angry shout and a roar. She flailed one, gradually thickening, arm backwards, in the girl's direction, hoping to knock her away as she tried to right herself. She was uneven and off balance though, so that was certainly a difficult task.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Sakura jumped back, trying to get a quick read on the situation. Rachel had gone bear, a shaggy, large creature partly familiar from the Forest of Death.

Smaller than the ones she was used to, though.

"We don't have to do this!" It was a last bid before figuring out just how well built this animal form was, and how much punishment it could take.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel growled as the last of the changes came over her, completing the morph into bear.

< Fuck you, > Rachel snapped in thoughtspeak, right into Sakura's head. < Go the hell away! Or I'll kill you! >

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

This was simply unbearable. "You an try," Sakura offered dryly, hoping to hell and back they were in a cold zone. Not that a little Stacy interference would be unwelcome at this point, if it'd keep Rachel under control, but neither of them needed to rack up violations in the process.

Pushing off the ground, Sakura aimed a flying punch at Rachel's grizzled head!

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

Mean Rachel accepted that challenge whole heartedly. Letting out a roar as the punch met her head, knocking her momentarily off balance, she spun around and swiped a massive bear claw at Sakura, aiming to smack her out of the air, and into the ground.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Sakura twisted away from Rachel's paw, forced to land and spin back out of the way to keep her version of an advantage. Coming back up into a ready stance, Sakura went over her mental options.

If she could just knock the wind out of Rachel, stun her just long enough, she could probably manage to knock her out with minimal damage... it was worth trying.

Sakura darted forward, attempting to get a hold on one of Rachel's forepaws to toss her across the way against a nearby wall.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel didn't wait for Sakura to make another move before she began to charge forward-- running straight at her, squinting with her bear eyes to see her. She didn't care that Sakura was charging back-- until, at least, her paw was grabbed and she was thrown nearby. With a crash as she hit the wall, the bear roared-- in anger and in pain-- but she quickly started to right herself, shaking off the debris from the now damaged wall. The bear was strong and hefty, that was for sure.

Letting out a loud, angry scream of her own, into Sakura's head via thoughtspeak, as she began to charge forward again, jaws open to go for a vicious bite.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Great. "It'd be great if you'd just calm down," Sakura ground out, dodging back away from Rachel's jaws bearing down on her. For all it might be tempting to pull a Naruto and let Rachel bite down, Sakura knew her arm wouldn't bear the crushing power of a bear's jaws.

It'd be unbearably wasteful to heal something she could avoid entirely in the first place. Not that it left her with many options. For the interim, Sakura was bear baiting until she either got the clean shot in to knock Rachel out, or... she found some other way of getting Rachel under control.

"I'd prefer to only have one bear through a wall moment a fight!"

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

< I'll kill you! > Rachel shouted again, into her head, in place of abiding her request-- apparently calming down wasn't really going to happen, not with Rachel polarized the way that she was.

She continued to snap her jaws, roar and swipe at the girl as she dodged away. This was so frustrating! She wanted gore! Violence!

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

So much for asking. Sakura wasn't much up to playing chew-toy for Big Beartha, but she also wasn't up to an accidental one hit kill.

Sakura might not be willing to offer up the gore, or the kind of violence Rachel really wanted... but she could offer up some really hard punches. Ones that were meant to incapacitate over anything else -- knock her out, or break her down until she couldn't get away. (Or morphed back, and then try again then. Humans were much easier to knock out -- she knew their system inside, outside, backward, and possibly upside down on a stormy day in the forest.)

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel roared quite loudly at the punches. They were solid and painful and she was hurting from it-- but the bear was sturdy and she was stubborn. She was ignoring that pain as much as she possibly could, continuing to press forward, with growls, snaps and roars. IF she could just reach the girl for one solid swipe, try and drive her into a building nearby... and that was exactly her intention, swinging a strong bear arm quite forcefully toward the girl.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Enough was enough. Sakura formed the seals for a shadow clone, immediately ducking around and under Rachel's bear arm. The switch out was fast, and suddenly Rachel was connecting with Sakura, sending her into the wall!

Only on impact, Sakura ceased to exist, an audible pop of disturbed air marking her passage into nonexistence.

And then Sakura was at Rachel's back -- and then on her. Bear riding was totally the new fashion these days, even if it had the weird side effect of attempted bear suffocations. Or noogies. If noogies were applied to the throat with an arm and not the fist.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[pretty_lethal]

What the hell?! Rachel was both confused and enraged at the sudden disappearance-- she'd be gratified for only a brief moment before that was shattered before her very eyes, proven to have been a trick. How dare she?!

Of course, then she feels something land on her back.

Letting out a powerful, angry roar, Rachel's bear stood up and failing and thrashed, basically bucking and trying to throw the ninja-girl off. < Get the hell off of me! > she screamed in her head.

Re: When Animals Attack [Random Encounter]

[encourage]

Sakura didn't bother answering, considering she didn't feel like getting a mouthful of bear fur. Up close and personal, she tightened her hold on Rachel, basically hugging her from behind. One determined ninja burr on the animmorph bear express to -- frankly -- nowhere, going fast.