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[cityship]

Throughout the ship, people would hear the familiar voice of Stacy in their heads.

||Pod Release Protocols Initating||

In the Pod Caverns, there were the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There was condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slid out onto the floors, covered in slime.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

Comments

[fromtheraw.livejournal.com]

Leni was not surprised to be naked when she woke up. The last thing she remembered, after all, was relaxing in the tub after a long day of work.

The alien snot, however, was not a particularly welcome addition.

"Oh... oh, ugh..." Grimacing, she tried in vain to wipe some of it off, before the thought of wait, how did it get here, anyway suddenly struck her and she decided to look up.

This was most definitely not home. As a matter of fact, she really had no basis for comparison. It looked like something out of a horror movie, if anything, and god knew that that wasn't exactly her genre of choice.

She got to her feet, covering up the parts that needed covering, and glared defiantly at... well, the ceiling, for lack of anything more specific. "What the hell is going on here?" she demanded.

[cityship]

There's a woman's voice that seems to come from nowhere.

||Do you require any assistance, Leni Ivens?||

[fromtheraw.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, y-- wait." She squeezed her eyes shut and massaged her temples. Voices in her head. Great. This was really getting to be too much to take in all at once. She'd say it was just a bad dream, but normally her imagination wasn't quite this creative.

"Okay." Her voice held the calmness of someone who was just barely holding it together. "Let's try this again. What's going on, and who-- what are you?"

[waylostandfound.livejournal.com]

"But last year, something incredible happened to me, and it changed my life. At first, I was afraid, but I'm not afraid anymore. I'm here to tell you the truth. ....I have the ability..."

Then two shots, two shots that collided and burrowed toward his chest, and he remembered falling. Seemed strange for a flying man to fall, but he indeed did, falling into Peter's arms as the press and police closed in. Pandemonium, and all Nathan could think, was it enough? Even without admitting it, is it enough for them to believe?

But that was then. Now involved bleary eyes opening, and furtively wiping goo from them that was dripping over fingertips and elsewhere. He was barely aware that he was naked as well, naked. Like he really had died from those shots, and was now being reborn. Where the hell was he? The Company?

No, they wanted him silenced. They wouldn't.

"Where the hell am I?"

[novawatcher.livejournal.com]

Now this was interesting.

Lacaille clambered quickly to her feet, peering at her surroundings. It all looked organic, felt organic, though she couldn't place what particular kind. It looked like plant matter, but the chrysalises--she ran her hand over the one she'd apparently just emerged from--were more typical of insects, and the throbbing around her seemed closer to animal, almost--or at least something with a pulse. Was it alive?

Where was she, anyway?

That thought brought her up short, and her expression dissolved into a puzzled frown. She'd been on the observation deck, and then...

She looked around a bit, and cracked a smile--at least she wasn't alone in here. "Hey!" she called out to the man she could see a little way down, waving to catch his attention as she jogged over to him. "Hey, do you know what's going on?"

[waylostandfound.livejournal.com]

His head immediately turned towards the voice. In other circumstances, there would be a friendly smile, full of bright teeth intending to charm.

Not today, not now.

A cautious glance thrown back to her as he carefully stated, "Was hoping you could tell me." He drew himself up despite his currently gooey appearance. Maybe she works for Bob, maybe she's a pawn same as him. Hard to say for now.

[cutintomyheart.livejournal.com]

From one of the pods limply falls someone who doesn't seem quite alive, at a first glance. Emaciated skin and bones, sunken and glassy eyes... almost like a mummified corpse. Age is hard to tell - male, definitely, and there's that jet-black hair... teenager, maybe? It certainly looks dead.

[maninthemachine.livejournal.com]

Bri had come down to the Pod Caverns after hearing the announcement, curious about the new arrivals.

A few minutes of walking down the dank corridors, and he finds...well, crap. That definitely looks like a corpse.

Of course, Bri's already come to realize that some things aren't exactly what they seem around here, so he decides to take a closer look. After all, why would Stacy bother to pop a corpse and just leave it there?

He walks up to said possibly-corpse, kneeling down by its side to check for a pulse.

[cutintomyheart.livejournal.com]

There's no pulse - no real signs of life at all, really. With the waxiness of the body's skin, it could easily have been dead for a day or two. The skin is cool to the touch, around room temperature.

[cursed-chimera.livejournal.com]

This wasn't the desert.

He'd woken with a start, the sensation of falling, and he practically hit the floor thrashing. Until that moment, it had been a comfortable dream, one that was reassuring, but now..

Zelgadis was alert, awake, but his brain hadn't kicked in. It was all reflex, a feeling of being surprised or attacked, and he was peeling himself to his feet, breathing raggedly through the mess that still clung to him.

Nothing came flying out of the darkness to attack him, and his mind started to finally catch up with the rest of his body. He was weaponless, alone, and in someplace he didn't recognize. Empty hands had actually gone to his hips before realizing his blade wasn't there. Neither was anything else, for that matter. Unless you counted mucus.

"What in nine hells..?" Had something tried to eat him?

[cityship]

The voice of a woman echoes in his mind.

||You seem distressed, Zelgadis Greywords. Would you like a mild sedative?||

[cursed-chimera.livejournal.com]

The voice came without warning, and it was loud. Not physically; keen hearing took no note of echoes, of vibrations that speech caused. Only oart of his mind really noticed it. Zel's head had whipped up, searching for the source of the voice, and there was nothing that looked like it could speak.

He'd jumped, nerves frazzled already, and he hadn't even gotten to the good part yet.

"What is this, devil?" The tone managed to strangle it's way out of his throat, sounding downright demanding. Show no fear. Though it were a real demon, it would be able to feel his terror. Feed off it, even.

Then he just breathed, trying to get himself under control. "Where are my friends?" They had to be here, right? They wouldn't just pick him up and nobody else.

[ssstinker.livejournal.com]

A little ways away from all of the other new releases...something else got released too.

It didn't exactly seem dangerous yet, but it probably would seem quite...freaky.

Out of a pod, slid a small, furry, light brown...thing, with bits of metal, and covered in slime. It started flailing around, letting out a strange sound that sounded something like Riiiiiiiaaaaaoooouuuuuu!

And then, to bring the freakiness of the whole situation to the Nth degree, it started yelling, in a warped, computer-generated voice.

"Ssssst!nk! Sssssssst!nk!!!"

[cityship]

||Number Two, you will be cleaned if you follow the lights.||

They appeared along the floor.

[ssstinker.livejournal.com]

The thing eventually stopped flailing, revealing that it was...well, just a cat.

...Okay, just a cat with metal bits sticking out of it in random places and patches of fur permanently shaved off.

"Wer is 2?" she said, in that same warped voice without moving her mouth, taking up a defensive stance and looking around cautiously.

[spaceraptor.livejournal.com]

Red's eyes opened as his body was released from the pod, the lukewarm film of slime covering his skin and face. He put one clawed foot down on the deck, steadying himself before blinking both sets of eyelids and emerging fully from the pod.

This feels like bacta, but doesn't taste of it. And I don't recall being injured. Not to mention this CERTAINLY doesn't smell like the sick bay... Red gave his muscled serpentine neck a good stretch, lowering his head closer to the floor as he pulled the rest of his body free from the pod. His tail was last to pull free, a sticky string of ichor still clinging from the tip to the pod interior. The Tiss'shar clicked his tongue over his teeth thoughtfully as he rubbed his snout against the ground.

Soft, but solid...wet, pulsating...alive? Wherever he was, this place it smelled and felt as though it had been grown, not built. Raising his head up, the Tiss'shar took note for the first time of the other other pods in the room. The went on and on, dizzying rows that seemed to have no end. With their psuedo-living build, the chamber felt to Red like some sort of ungodly farm. He could not remember hatching from an egg, but while the emergence here was similar, there was an unnatural orderliness to it. It set an awkward tenseness to the muscles along his spine and he felt his tail raise and begin a slow lashing in nervous response.

Something was very amiss here. Although he wanted desperately to sit down and groom the sticky coating of pod-slime off his scales, there were more pressing matters at hand. He would clean later, if time permitted. He took a few tenative clicking steps away from the pod on his legs, pausing to twist his head upwards and sniff the air, grunting.

He had been released. Perhaps whoever had released him was near enough to hear him. It was a long shot, but there were few other options. In such a wide open room, he had little chance of finding who had freed him unless they opted to show themselves. Holding his hands close to his body, he bent upwards, standing to full height, and called out.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

[cityship]

A woman's voice seems to come from nowhere.

||My audio sensors are operating within normal parameters, Aish-Kar-Yan.||

[spaceraptor.livejournal.com]

In immediate and instinctive reaction to the voice, Red jerked his body back with a sound between a grunt and a purr. He swung his head from side to side, sniffing anxiously at the air, body otherwise completely still under the uncomfortable coat of slowly drying slime.

Careful, careful...Think. No scent outside the peculiar damp and fleshy musk. No one was near, but he was by no means doubting what he had heard. There had been a voice. It had known his name. Think, Aish-Kar. Think carefully.

He knew that there were some species which were reputed to be telepaths, though he had never met one. How much a telepath could pluck from his mind, he was not sure, but at the least this one had gathered his name. The terminology it used was almost droid-like, so could that mean a cyborg of some kind? This required more information.

Guessing that the being, whatever it was, could see him, he attempted to relax. His tail lowered and resumed a lazy swinging arc and he lowered his head, allowing his posture to become more natural. It would be prudent to draw this being out into the open - he could always learn more if he could smell who it was he was speaking with.

"I presume it was you who freed me. Could you show yourself? And," He swiveled his head, sniffing delicately over one shoulder. Still nothing. "Could you tell me where we are?"

[beyondgotham.livejournal.com]

He didn't really wake up until he'd almost hit the floor. And that was only a nerve reaction to falling, as he caught himself on his hands and knees, not really remembering the fall. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision, and his head. Where was he? What had just happened?

He pushed himself up, sitting back on his knees. The last thing he could remember... was patrolling. He'd just landed the car to get out and break up a little band of Jokerz, and... then what? Then, he was... here. Wherever here was. Here, and apparently covered in goo.

He cleared his throat, and licked his dry lips, which turned out to be a bad idea, since whatever this stuff was, it tasted awful. He couldn't quite relate it to any other thing he'd ever tasted, except for maybe the spoiled milk he'd been dared to drink once in middle school. But stickier.

"Where am I?" He said out loud. It was only meant for himself, but his voice echoed in the chamber. "And..." he said, looking down, "what happened to my suit?"

[cityship]

||You are in the Pod Caverns. Your suit was removed as it would interfere with the pod's life support systems.||

[beyondgotham.livejournal.com]

Terry blinked, looking up and around for the source of the voice. The fact that this thing knew about his suit, but hadn't killed him, made him rather sure that this was a dream. He'd had dreams like this before. (Though most of them included pretty girls and didn't have as much slime.)

"So, uh..." He said, once more looking around, craning his head back to try to see if there were speakers up there in the rows of pods. He spoke a bit louder, not sure how the voice heard him. "Any chance I can... y'know... get my clothes back?"

[lytaalex.livejournal.com]

Lyta's eyes fluttered open several minutes after her mind had already awoken to the dull headache that throbbed within her skull. There was an intense buzzing sound in her head, like there were thousands upon thousands of bees swarming around in her mind, the vibrating echo of their wings swirling into the dark recesses of her memory.

Forcing herself to sit up, she looked down at her naked, goo-covered body, but seemed oddly comfortable with it. She'd been in a stasis tank before when she'd visited the Vorlon homeworld and they'd sedated her and placed her in suspension so that they could perform their treatments on her. Even the organic nature of her surroundings didn't appear too troubling to her. She was familiar with organic technology and this, while as comfortable or soothing as the Vorlon transports she'd been in, was still not as horrifying as the pure, cold evil that she'd sensed from the Shadow vessels—despite this place's rather disgusting aesthetic.

Standing, she turned around to look at the pod—which she'd just come out of—laying crumpled at her feet before turning her attention to the thousands of more like it that hung in the room from an unseen ceiling. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, Lyta forced herself to ignore the incessant buzzing in her head long enough for her to push outward with her mind, reaching out to one of the nearby pods.

She could sense the life inside of it, but nothing more, nothing that would tell her who was inside it. Gender, age, even species all seemed to be blocked and held outside her reach, leaving her only with the knowledge that someone was inside. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she cast a few furtive glances, looking to see if there were anyone else she couldn't read were in the room, then reached out to touch the pod in front of her hoping that physical contact with it might allow her to break through whatever it was blocking her. Still, nothing.

Who's there? she asked, managing to send a weak telepathic message, not to the occupant of the pod but rather to whatever it was that was blocking her telepathy.

[cityship]

Send out a telepathic question, get a telepathic answer.

||I am.||

[the-cute-speedy.livejournal.com]

Mia's eyes snapped open as she felt herself hit a cold floor, naked and covered in... something.

For a brief, horrifying moment, she was two years back, in her worst times, before Ollie. Sitting up and looking around though, she realized this wasn't a cheap hotel, or a cold rainy alley, or anywhere she'd been before. The surroundings were alien... REALLY alien. Like, bio stuff on the walls and creepy lighting.

"Oh crap... it finally happened.. I've been around the supers long enough that I've been alien abducted." She looked around, trying to find anything she could use as a weapon.

[cityship]

Nothing but pods faintly glowing, mostly-humanoid forms within them. Far off there was a long walkway that went up to the cavernous ceiling.

||Mia Dearden. Do you require clothing?||

This seemed to be the primary concern of most of the podlings as they awoke from podsleep.