Door 2 - The Wasteland

[NativeForeigner]

Gwen, unfortunately, simply could not line up a shot at one o the eyes from her current position, she would either have to move or wait for the creature to turn around. Mark and Cindy were in just as poor a position.

Smith's shots landed heavily upon the beast, making a sickening, fleshy sound as they hit. It positioned it's right arm
across it's "face" to protect it's eyes.
Not being able to see well in this state, the creature took the full force of the hammer's blow and tumbled.

Without pause, it pushed itself back upright and swung its massive arm at Smith.

*

Sitting just outside the factory door on a rock was Max, waiting to greet Orion with a sly smile.
He hopped off o the large rock and spread his brass wings, landing gently.

"Maxmilian A. Driskoll, pleasure to meet your aquaintance."  

[Dark Angel of Sol]

Orion arrived at the factory to see a fair-skinned figure with large copper color wings on a rock at the door. As he got up and introduced himself, Jack froze while Orion greeted him, “Hello, I'm Orion Sol: no middle name.” He noticed that Jack had stopped and turned his head and said in a worried tone, “Hey Jack, what's wrong?”  

[Elesariin]

Gwen hesitated for a second, reluctant to leave her patient's side. But... if she started shooting at this thing, it would be better to be away from him, wouldn't it? In case the creature charged, or something?

Her mind made up, she quietly started moving toward a better shooting position.  

[NativeForeigner]

"Finally someone with some manners." Max muttered beneath his breath. When Orion turned to look at Jack, Max gave Jack a threatening, cold glare.

"N-nothing." Jack stuttered, his hand inching towards the trigger of his weapon.

"Mr. Sol, if I may call you such, I approach you with an urgent request. A plague as afflicted my people. We are in desperate need of a cure and are having little luck on our own.

You may not be a doctor or scientist, but there are certainly a number of other ways you could assist us." he quickly went to explain as Orion turned his attention back to Max.

Across Max's lower face was a simple brass-colored respirator.

*

Mark joined Gwen's side, urging her to hurry as he guided her through the door to the rear-left of the factory. Through the door was a small hallway. The two rounded the corner and jogged up a flight of stairs and went through another door at the top.

Gwen and Mark found themselves up on the catwalk, a much better position to shoot from.

Juliet's magazine: 24/24 (SMG) [0]/ 12/12 (Glock26) [3] | 20/20 (Five-seveN) [4]
Alastair's magazine: 36/36 (AR) [1], 12/12 (SIG) [4]
Gwen's magazine: 10/12 (HG) [1], 5/5 (Rifle) [4]
ROUS: 0/6 [?]
M82: 8/10 [?]
Smith's Men (1): 8  

[Dark Angel of Sol]

“Alright,” Dante said as he turned around. He didn't notice Max's the cold glare nor Jack's advance for his gun. I've seen this before. When the CEO came to visit that one time I noticed all the big wigs acting like that. This guy must be important. Maybe he can help us find Gregory and get us home. Dante listened to max with a kind yet unreadable face: one he composed after listening to case after case of teen drama. He's a little overly polite but I know a guy like that.

When Max finished, Dante said, “Well Mr. Driskoll, That is quite the bomb shell you've dropped on me. I really don't know what to say. I want to say I'll do all I can but to be honest...” Dante paused for a few seconds then continued, “...I just can't give you an answer.”  

[NativeForeigner]

Max smiled gently, "Well of course you can't give me an answer, you don't know who I am, you don't know what we expect of you, and you certainly don't know much about what's going on. Perhaps you'd like to ask a few questions? I insist." he paused for a moment, placing his hand to his chin as he thought.

"Perhaps you'd like to know what we could offer you?"  

[Dark Angel of Sol]

Dante thought to himself for a little. Is this a test? Might as well take this chance to get a few answers while he's offering. Dante spoke slowly at first but then picked up speed, “Well, I have a few. First, Who are you? All I know is your name. Second, What would you want me to do? Third, Where am I and why am I here? Fourth, Are you the one who sent me this?” Dante said as he took a sliver coin from his pocket, “Fifth, Sorry I have a lot of questions, ever since I arrived here, I've found a program on my laptop that affects other people. Can you tell me anything about that? And finally, since you brought it up, What can you offer me?” Dante was a little nervous about asking so many questions to a guy he just met but in his mind they had to be asked. He knows the value of information and will seek it if he needs it.  

[NativeForeigner]

"No, no, it's no problem at all! You deserve to know what's going on."

Max took a brief moment to clear his throat before addressing the questions, "First, I am a MADman, a Duke. Don't be put off by our title, it is simply our initials (our family was rather set on names that began with "M"), we come from a land other than Empyrea, seeking a cure to a disease that has been plaguing our people."

As he spoke, he made eye-contact with Orion and held himself high, his posture straight and his hands held behind his back.

"Second, we would ask that you help us in whatever way you believe you can, any sort of help would be greatly appreciated. Thirdly, you are in Empyrea, the Wasteland, to be exact, and you are here because you fell through a portal into this world.

Fourth, we are the ones who sent you that, and I'm terribly sorry for not going into further detail in our letter, but "Please help us fight a disease in a crazy world that's not your own" isn't exactly tempting. However, what was said was very much true, and the prizes are only yet to come. That coin is a form of currency around here, and there's much more than just money to be gained.

Fifth, you're a rather...interesting case. While the other people you've been with will notice previously inert abilities emerge in their time of adversity, you seem to have a rather unusual development. Rather than discovering an ability within yourself, your laptop has taken on the adaptation instead.

That program on your laptop allows you to access the minds of those around you. However, the process is not perfect. That is one of the things we can offer you, we can help you sharpen your skills with this program.

Allow me to show you, open your laptop, please."

Max gestured for Orion to take out his laptop, "Just open the program, I'll guide you through it, but you have to do the actual labor."

Juliet's magazine: 24/24 (SMG) [0]/ 12/12 (Glock26) [3] | 20/20 (Five-seveN) [4]
Alastair's magazine: 36/36 (AR) [1], 12/12 (SIG) [4]
Gwen's magazine: 10/12 (HG) [1], 5/5 (Rifle) [4]
Orion's magazine: 9/12 (HG)/ 9/12 (rifle) Battery life: 85%
ROUS: 0/6 [?]
M82: 8/10 [?]
Smith's Men (1): 8  

[Dark Angel of Sol]

Dante listened to Max with great interest as he received his answers. When max requested him to take the laptop out, Dante walked over to the rock Max was sitting a few moments ago, sat on the rock, and started up the computer. While the startup screen was going Dante decied to ask one more question as his teacher side came out a little, “If you invited people to help with this disease, then why did you invite teens? Their parents must be worried sick,” making a reference to Gwen and Shikyo. When the laptop was booted, Dante opened the program and waited for instructions. Due to how close he was to the factory, he could see not only Max and Jack, but he could also see the names of Smith and the others.  

[NativeForeigner]

Max shrugged, "We looked at certain aspects of a person when choosing. They have aspects that we like. That or a different entity invited them, we didn't send out all of the invitations."

Once Orion's laptop was booted, he pointed at the screen towards the alien program, "Now open up the program." he instructed, "And search through the minds within range. The mind of almost everyone in there is too stable, their willpower is too strong for you to hack into as of now, and they'll probably remain out of your skill range for quite some time.

There is, however, another entity in there, its mind is twisted and unstable. While the creature's mind has a much more complex and irrational working than a normal person's, it has very little willpower and it's mental instability renders its mind weak.

It's attacking those inside, you can help them out. Find and gain access to that creature."  

[Dark Angel of Sol]

“Attacking?” Dante said. He quickly looked through all the names. He saw one name that stood out. It's name was in weird symbols, but when he clicked on the name, the picture was not human. So this is the creature who is attacking. Nice to know that ******** up names are okay to connect. Dante hit the connect button and saw two windows open up with the title "Base Code" with a strange computer code already in it and the other called "Command Code" which was empty.  

[Elesariin]

Gwen carefully lined up a shot and fired, again aiming for one of the two strange, bulbous eyes on the creature's chest. Before she'd even registered if the shot had connected, she was carefully pulling back the bolt for another shot. She could do this. And then--after that THING was dead-- she would scream, long and loud. Possibly throw up, too.  

[SirBayer]

Smith raised his hammer, blocking the attack. It caused him to stumble, and he lost a little ground; he decided to use this to his advantage, using the momentum to throw himself into a backwards roll. When he came back up, he had already dropped the shells from the ROUS and was reloading, preparing to rip more parts off of the creature. His hammer remained within very, very easy reach; the moon clip was already in his hand.  

[NativeForeigner]

Gwen's shots connected, but didn't quite hit their mark. Rather than impacting the creature's eyes, one pierced it's forehead, making a sickening sloshing sound as it more-or-less added to the creature's mass, not doing much else. The other, however, grazed the creature's smaller eye.
It hissed in pain, but was suddenly more occupied with an invasive presence that had made it's way into it's mind.

It thrashed about for a few moments before giving up the mental fight and focusing on Smith while it could.

The hiss of steam coming from the garage could be heard over the commotion, followed by the sound of churning gears.

Alastair opened fire on the Infected.

*

"Okay." Max continued, "Now do whatever it is you do with that nonsense. You need to hack into the creature's mentality. After that is accomplished, you'll have limited control over it's actions.

It will, however, continually fight to break the connection."

Juliet's magazine: 24/24 (SMG) [0]/ 12/12 (Glock26) [3] | 20/20 (Five-seveN) [4]
Alastair's magazine: 18/36 (AR) [1], 12/12 (SIG) [4]
Gwen's magazine: 10/12 (HG) [1], 3/5 (Rifle) [4]
Orion's magazine: 9/12 (HG)/ 9/12 (rifle) Battery life: 85%
ROUS: 6/6 [?]
M82: 8/10 [?]
Smith's Men (1): 8
Enemy: Mid-Level Infected