City of IF

Kalanna Rai · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 3102 Location: The Frozen North

I have a lot of friends who read my stuff on here and they have three complaints that they keep beating me up over, literally. My not having posted this story before is one of them. It dosen't matter how busy I already am they want to read it on the net not at my leasure so I decided to frustrate them by posting it as a SG. Let me tell you now this is my last new project so quit heckling me! Without further ado I present...
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Dying Twice.

Prelude- Overtones of Betrayel

Her blood pooled around her, like liquid ruby spilled from the heart of the earth. Nine. They'd shot her nine times, a bit of overkill don't ya think? There were the tell tale spiderwebs of cracked tile around each of the slugs embedded in the wall. Why hadn't she been wearing that kevlar vest? Dammit! He'd told her not to go out without it.

But she hadn't been planning on going out today. She'd been planning a party, a party for him and his little sisters. A party to celebrate all they'd been through. Dammit why her! Why drag Serras into it! She'd been a saint! A saint in a world of sinners. A nun in a world of whores! Sure she'd killed people for a living but what did that have to do with anything?

He cradled her body, him, the youngest boss the Corporation had ever had. Twenty two and top dog...all because of Serras. He looked at her face, eyes closed when she'd drifted off into a blood loss induced sleep. An angel. She looked only a few years older than him but that was a lie.

The immortal angel was at least fourty. She'd raised him. When his father, a low level enforcer, had been caught in the crossfire of a shootout it had been this saviour in black that had fallen from the sky and pulled him and his sister to safety, felling all who would follow. When he'd asked her why she saved them so many years later she simply said 'Children deserve a fighting chance.'

Now she was gone. His guards had turned their backs but they still heard his sobs. They followed at a discreet distance when he picked her up and began to carry her toward the exit. He wouldn't leave her here in this charnel house. Let the bodies of her attackers remain, forever, but she deserved better.

Her funeral was beautiful. There wasn't a dry eye to be seen, even the most stern and emotionless wept. He was a ghost of his former self. People began jockeying for power behind his back, each waiting for the perfect moment to rub him out. Then he'd gotten the letter.

It was from a well-known scientist named Ian Horvill or it seemed to be at first. It simply stated that Alyson had been interested in his work in life and had instructed him to take further steps upon her death. Also in the manila envalope was something that made his hands shake. Alyson's last letter.

Aren

I know that by now you and Sarah will be wrecks, unable to function without reminder of who you are and what you risk with every breath. I know that you both will be so sunk in grief that there will be little room left in your lives for anything else. Stop moping! I thought I raised you better than that!

However, I also knew that if you were ever reading this letter it ment I was gone and not by natural causes. Therefore I contacted Dr. Horvill some years ago when he was first doing reaserch in the feild of anti-aging, I havn't staied young by myself.

You thought it was a silly vanity indulgence of mine, or maybe something to give me a professional edge. It wasn't. It was a contingincy plan for this day. All those treatments were groundwork for what's, now, already begun. Cybergenetics Aren, are the future.

Don't worry your selves about me, I never feared death. I do fear for what happens to you after I'm gone though so I've instructed Dr. Horvill to leave you a little gift. It's a passcode to saftey, for you and yours. If ever danger draws too near, encroaches upon our family. If ever it seems you, Sarah, or any grandchildren I might have smiled upon are in danger simply call.

The last thing in the package was a small black medallion with the words 'Save Me' etched on it. Now Alyson had always had a strange sense of humor but this was a bit much. What good was cheap costume jewlery when every competitor he'd ever had was going to be breathing down his neck?

What good was 'cybergenetics' whatever they were, when you're first line of defense was stiffening in the embrace of worms? Suddenly grief turned to fury. He'd hunt them down, every last sonofabitch. For every shot he'd take a bloody vengence out of their hide!

He wanted to hurl the stupid medallion away, yet he could not shun Alyson's last gift. So he put it on his desk, in a frame, and left it there for many years.

While the Corporation grew. While he married and had two darling children. While Sarah died of cancer. While his rivals fell like wheat in the feild. While the memory of Alyson grew cold from disuse. Forgotten because it was held at arms length for too long.

Then his ruthlessness caught up with him and his empire crumbled. He and his wife held them off long enough to buy the children running room. As they darted through their father's office the little girl broke that frame, scattering shards of glass and that black medallion on the floor.

She wanted to clean it up before her daddy saw and was angery but only had time to pick up the medallion before her brother scooped her up in his arms and bolted like a frightened deer into the winter city beyond that study window.

They fled the house, which erupted into a fireball behind them, the boy trying to keep his sister calm while he was coming apart at the seams himself. Their flight hadn't gone unnoticed and the snow wasn't coming down thick enought to hide their tracks.

They fled into Oldtown, the seediest part of the city, hoping to loose their pursuers in territory that was mutually unfriendly. But it didn't work. Too soon they were caught between two groups of opponants.

For a moment the youth gazed wildly around. Then all the training his father had given him clicked into place. His eyes spotted two possible escape roots, an ally and a fire escape. His time was running out, soon they'd be within range of the small arms fire. Which way was he going to go?
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Whew, done. Now back off with the sharp sticks, I'm overburdened as it is!

Chinaren · Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:23 am Post subject:

Hahahaha! Yes, this is how it starts. Just one more storygame, I only have three, what's one more? Then another and another. You say to yourself it's no problem. I can stop anytime I want to. Any time. Then you find you have no room in your sig for links, then it becomes hard to fit the titles in.

Oh yes. Admit you have a problem now, it's the first step to, ah, well I don't know what, I haven't got to that part yet. :shock:

Now then, great start Rai. As for the escape routes, both seem a bit dodgy, and could lead in dead ends. However, the alley may offer more cover.

For your friends, well I know a dealer down in IS who would take them off your hands. Good prices and everything. Before you know it they will be working for the Overlords in AHA and won't be bothering you any more. ;)

Oh, and once more... LOSE not LOOSE!! Grrr.

Shady Stoat · Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Posts: 2950 Location: England

Another SG?? How are you going to keep up with all of 'em, Kal? Having said that, I haven't seen a bad storyline from you yet, so I'm sure you'll find a way of managing :D

I love the concept behind this one, but I can't help but feel the last third of it was a bit rushed. The empire collapsed so quickly that I had to go back and read it again just to catch the gist of what was happening. Having said that, you've gripped me and I really want to read the next chapter :cool:

Decision point? The alley would be stupid, it will probably just be a dead end, then they'll catch him for sure. Go up the fire escape and take your chances there instead :)

Solomon Birch · Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 3:29 am Post subject:

Looking promising; some nice lines, but the characters weren't really developed and I would liked to have known more about everything before the end of the chapter; who the heck the protagonist really was, what the corporation was, who his son is that has just rescued the daughter. The decision point also felt a little tacked on.

That said, it was an interesting and well-paced intro, so I shall be watching, reading and waiting to see what develops.

I think that the alley is a dumb idea, so the only other way to go is the fire escape.

*holds breath* :shock:

LordoftheNight · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5276 Location: Hell

I'm not sure, although the aleey could be a dead end the fire escape could easily lead to them being trapped in a building, or just outside it.

Chinaren · Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:08 am Post subject:

I thought both would be dead ends. The Fire escape though would be more exposed to gunfire. Which is why I favour the alley.

Kalanna Rai · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 3102 Location: The Frozen North

First off this is already a series of written short stories in the real world so I had to figure out how to fit all the background of the first one into an easy SG format. Thus I decided to introduce a prelude, mostly because I can't spell prolouge worth a damn...

So Soily if the characters seem flat, Stoat if the collapse seems a bit rushed just hang on it's only to set the scene. Everything will be rehashed in detail in the next two following chapters...I promise.

Solomon Birch · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:00 am Post subject:

I said I was looking forward to the next chapter, precisely so I could see if that happened! Good to hear Kal! :D

Kalanna Rai · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 3102 Location: The Frozen North

The protagonist's the dead chick...Dying Twice hint hint...

Kalanna Rai · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 3102 Location: The Frozen North

Poll's up and, for the sake of my workload, this is going to become a fastwrite SG. I promise to keep it as true to the original's level of detail as I can...and if you don't like the end result then just ask and I'll post the actual stories up here.

Chinaren · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:57 am Post subject:

'ted.

Solomon Birch · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:49 am Post subject:

*Voted Voted Voted!* ;) :P

*holds breath* :shock:

LordoftheNight · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5276 Location: Hell

voted three times did you?

voted for alley, and winning

mr_moochie · Guest

Oops, I always seem to tie things. Oh well. Well written, I really like the idea. Good work. YAY!!

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:10 pm Post subject: Aria One: Steel Strings

Ok the alley won by a narrow margin...
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Aria One: Steel Strings

With only a moment's hesitation he bolted for the ally and all the protection it would offer from the hail of bullets that were already starting to pepper the snow around them. He skidded a bit on the ice and slipped around the corner not a moment too soon as a bullet took a chunk out of the building where his head had been only moments before.

Through the falling snow he ran, the squealing of tires and slamming of doors echoing in the cold night behind him. True to their nature not one resident in Oldtown looked out their window or showed any margin of interest. He sprinted and slipped, his sister wimpering against his shoulder.

He turned the corner at the end of the ally, darting past trash cans and cluttered doorways. A tramp, huddled in one for it's megar protection whistled to him. "Hey kid don't run that way! It's a dead end. Go through that door and up onta the roof." He nodded his thanks before plowing through the open doorway the tramp had indicated.

The place was condemned and rotting, his feet broke through the stairs in several places, but he kept going until he reached the top. Around him, washlines strung between the buildings like the web of some enormus spider. He looked around him and saw several attractive escape routes, and didn't get to use one of them. A bullet hit the roof just next to his shoe. Looking up he saw the rifleman two rooftops away...the tramp had been a set up.

Now, cowering behind a brick chimney, he rocked his little sister softly, hushing her tears. He felt her press something into his hand. He looked and saw his father's black medallion, something the old man had treasured like an open wound, glinting in the poor light.

Save me. The words seemed to speak to him. "Kid! You've got nowhere to run! Uncle Baxter only wants to talk to you. Just come with us and everything will be fine."

"Like Hell!" Gunshots opened up, showering them with brickwork. He heard the man in charge chuckle.

"Fine kid hold out a few more minutes. Then the soldiers will be here and you can reason with them." Soldiers! His heart hammered in dread and his sister whimpered. They had to run! Like a deer flushed from cover he sprinted across the snow washed roof.

Bullets whizzed around him, sending up sprays of white snow and wood splinters where they hit. He gathered his strength to make a leap, and was knocked off the roof as a bullet hit him in the shoulder, spinning him around and giving his pursuers a breif glimpse of his defiant features, so like his father, before he toppled.

"Save Me!" He called out, not like a desperate man but more like a lord issuing orders. Far away, in a rundown mannor at the edge of town, something heard him.
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It was in a laboratory, with many machines whirring in soft contentment, their routine having never been broken in twenty long years, that a single suspension capsule sat like a silent sentinal. Moonlight gently filtered across the frosted glass surface, illluminating the perfect features of that which rested within.

Suddenly the eyes opened, the machines began to flash and sound wildly. She was waking! Responding to a call she could not have heard with mortal ears she shattered the glass around her. Aren was in trouble, he needed her, was calling her.

She didn't know where she was, how she'd gotten here, why she felt so strange, but none of that mattered. Her boy was in danger! She crossed quickly to the window and flung it wide open onto the snowy night. It was a thirty foot drop to the ground below yet she climbed onto the windowsill and launched herself into the night just as the door behind her opened.

A young woman, dressed in a white lab coat and wire rimmed glasses swore. "Dammit! She's on the move!" Outside, in the winter air, Alyson's body responded to her urging. Without her realizing it two wings, like sheets of steel silk, extended from her rapidly lightening body and she sliced through the air faster than a bullet.

Soon she was over Oldtown, casting a shadow over her former haunt that sent shivers down many a spine and causing the only person to see her, a drunk vagrant, to poor his hard earned gin into the snow. She wasn't thinking, she just had to get to him in time.
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They were lucky, a pile of refuse and offal broke their fall. All the breath was knocked out of him and he just lay there for a moment, barely rolling out of the path of the bullets that began to rain down on them. Then he was up and on his feet, sprinting into the darkness.

A few moments later he reached the end of the ally, a solid brick wall just like the traitor tramp had said. "It's over kid!" He whirled around to see vague shapes moving in the thick snowfall. They soon resolved themselves into figures that filled his heart with icey dread...soldiers ten of them.

"Any last words kid? Save me again perhaps?" At that instant something fell out of the sky, like a wall of ice and steel it cut him off from his attackers.
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"I prefer die!" Alyson threw out her hands, a single steel wire spinning out of each of them. Unneringly they sought out their targets, peircing every soldier through all their layers of armor, throught their sturnums, and into their hearts. A crystal node in the center of her chest flashed and twenty-thousand volts coursed down each of those threads.

The soldiers, unstoppable death machines they were, dropped like puppets who's strings had been cut. "What the hell..." The threatening thug never got a chance to say more. Instantly Alyson was eye level with him, standing in mid air with blood dripping off the tips of her fingers.

"I suggest you go tell your boss that you need a vacation...and tell him to take one as well. Nothing will happen to these two on my watch." The thug took one look at the grim specter and fled, his men close at his heels. Slowly, like any other snowflake, Alyson floated down out of the sky and landed before the huddled pair. "Well, Aren, look at the trouble you've gotten into." Her wings vanished and she looked like any other person...almost

"I'm not Aren." The boy mumbled. Alyson's eyes bored into his then widened slightly. He wasn't Aren. "I'm his son, Victor." Alyson staggered back...what was going on?

"But..no..I..he...." It was at that moment a black van sped around the corner and slid to a halt. From it stepped the young woman in the lab coat and glasses.

"Well I certainly didn't expect this...Alyson are you alright."

"Who are you? What am I doing here? What's going on?"

"Oh no. Father warned me about this. He told me that sometimes Revenants didn't remember what had happened to them."

"Who was your father?"

"Ian Horvill." Alyson sucked in a sharp breath and bowed her head, her long platinum hair veiling her face from their eyes.

"So it came to pass...yes I remember now." She suddenly threw back her head. "Baxter! That bastard! And to think Aren was beginning to pursuade me to trust him! When I get my hands on him I'll..."

"Calm down Alyson! You're form's unstable enough! Don't go aggrivating it!"

The little girl whimpered and her brother shushed her. Quietly Victor cleared his throat. "I'm a little confused as to what's happening here." The woman in the lab coat sighed.

"As am I young man. I think we all need answers. If you all will just get in the van I'm sure we'll be able to sort things out on the way back to the house..."

"No." Alyson shook her head. "I need to find Aren,"

"Father's dead, mother too. The house exploaded and I don't think anyone could have survived." Alyson's breath caught in her throat.

"Sarah..." She croaked.

"My aunt's dead too..." A single silver tear ran down her cheek.

The woman had finally had it. "Look we get in the van and we can go anywhere we want but we need to get moving. Victor's in need of medical treatment, the little girl..."

"Suzanna."

"Suzanna, is in need of some warmth and love. Alyson's in need of answers and I am in desperate need of a stiff brandy. Now are we going to stay here or are we going to go someplace..."
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Well are they going to stay or are they going to go...more importantly where are they going?

Blaze_ · Guest

Chinaren · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:16 pm Post subject:

Back to the lab? They must have a safe house somewhere.

Nice chappy Rai!

Shady Stoat · Guest Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Posts: 2950 Location: England

Good chapter. Beginning to make more sense now, I think :D

OK then. Let's go somewhere neutral, for now. I don't think Alyson will want to return to the lab, but she'll want to go somewhere. The woman will probably go along to get time to earn her trust.

A Motel, for a night? At least the woman is likely to have enough cash to manage that. Then they can talk, get things sorted out and work out what to do next :)

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:58 am Post subject:

Glad u like, life stories in chapter three whether you want em' or not.

LordoftheNight · Guest Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5276 Location: Hell

Sounds like a vampire to me - or at least - something similar enough.

This bit confused me

Quote: "I'm not Aren." The boy mumbled. Alyson's eyes bored into his then widened slightly. He wasn't Aren. "I'm his son, Victor." Alyson staggered back...what was going on?

"But..no..I..he...." It was at that moment a black van sped around the corner and slid to a halt. From it stepped the young woman in the lab coat and glasses.

"Well I certainly didn't expect this...Alyson are you alright."

"Who are you? What am I doing here? What's going on?"

"Oh no. Father warned me about this. He told me that sometimes Revenants didn't remember what had happened to them."

"Who was your father?"

"Ian Horvill." Alyson sucked in a sharp breath and bowed her head, her long platinum hair veiling her face from their eyes.

in the blue section he seems to say Aren is his father, while in the red it's Ian Horvill.

This is probably just me mis-reading the information or forgetting something, but could you clear it up? Or is the second one the new woman answering?

and I read your linked linear story btw, thanks for putting that up

mr_moochie · Guest

The van pulls up, woman gets out, HER father is Ian Horvill. The boy's is Aren. So, yeah. Go back to the lab, and drink hot chocolate :) Can't go wrong with hot chocolate :D

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:32 pm Post subject:

Mooch has the right of it Lordy...the woman is Ian Horvill's daughter while Victor is Aren's son.

LordoftheNight · Guest Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5276 Location: Hell

Voted for lab, and winning

and thanks for clearing that up.

Solomon Birch · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:45 am Post subject:

Good chapter again Rai, and things have been fleshed out nicely. Thanks. :biggrin:

Now, I think that they should go somewhere safer. And anywhere's probably safer than where they are at the moment....

Excpet maybe starbucks.... those places are filled with unmentionable evil.... :?

*holds breath* :shock: ;)

mr_moochie · Guest

voted for lab. HOT CHOCOLATE!! I'm tellin ya, you can't go wrong!!

Solomon Birch · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 1:24 pm Post subject:

Unless it's from Starbucks. Then it's bound to go wrong...

*shudders* :shock:

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject: Aria Two: Dead by Sunrise

Back to the lab again...
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Aria Two: Dead by Sunrise.

Alyson was about to say something to the effect of 'I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers' when a little voice inside her head pinged off. "I personally don't care where we go but I want you three in the van and moving before this entourage gets here. Those thugs that were trying to kill Victor and Suzanna have called for back up."

The woman in the lab coat tossed the keys in the air and caught them. "That settles it. The lab is the safest place I know of." As Victor and Suzanna hurried off after the woman he looked over his shoulder. Alyson stood alone, veiled by the softly swirling snow, a look of distruction etched on her face.

As they all belted into the car the woman in the lab coat looked over at him. "My name's Yyvette, call me Vet, and I don't mind if you bleed on the upolstry but try not to puke on the dash." Victor was about to ask why he'd puke on the dash when the van spun off on two wheels. He never puked on the dash but the floorpanels weren't so lucky.

Alyson waited there until the seven unmarked black midsized cars came roaring down the alley. Soldier after soldier stepped out of it, each aiming an automatic rifle here way. A green overlay cut across her vision, giving a stat readout on the soldiers. They were powerful yet not in her league, as their stats were printed in green, not red or orange.

From behind them walked an older man in a buisness suit, his readings in white, the readings on his gun in green. "You have cost me something very dear this evening and now you must pay the price."

She didn't look up from behind the veil of her hair her eyes carefully trained on the ground. "Do you have anything to say to me?"

"What I took this night from you is nothing compared to what you have taken from me." The man eyed her sharply. No doubt her voice was familier yet he couldn't place it. Not surprising since nobody had heard it in nearly thirty years.

"I don't think you understand the trouble you're in miss. These men standing around me are Soldiers, genetically enhanced warriors. They can survive a stick of dynamite thrown at them, or a close range shotgun blast. You, on the other hand, are a weak and useless female. Your cute little electric wire trick isn't going to work on these gentlemen I've brought. Now you're going to pay the price...with your life."

He turned on his heel as the soldiers advanced in a line to block off the alley, two rows deep. He hadn't gone more than five steps when there was a series of muffled thuds from behind him. He whirled around to find his soldiers laying in the snow and the woman on an arms length away.

Slowly she tilted up her head, her colorless eyes boring into his, the strange silver desinge on her forhead flanked by wings of platinum hair. "Baxter I'd have thought you'd learned your lesson. You can't beat me when I've chosen my ground and my time. However, just in memory of the life you stole from me I'll give you till sunrise to pick you're time and your place. Bring an army, I dare you, because this time I won't just kill them...I'll kill you too."

Before he could do anything else she vanished, as if she'd never been. He sank to the ground weaping. Computers, robotics, genetics, and biotechnology he could understand. A wrathful phantom from beyond the grave was something else entirely. He was out of his depth...it was time to call in the big guns...

Back at the lab Victor endured Vet's ministrations without complaint as she cleaned, stitched and dressed the wound. "So how old are you?"

"Twenty-two the same age as my father when he took over the Corporation. He was always dissapointed that I wasn't as ambitious as he was...but I took after my mother. I loved art and music, literature and theatre. I was interested in technology, cybergentetics yes, but not as weapons like my father saw them but a medical treatment.

I was against revenants when they first started showing up, although I can't say the same now, and I wasn't tickled pink when my father started messing around with creating the soldiers. Naturally he got bored of it after a while, playing god that is, and left it to Baxter...and you can see what Baxter has done with all that power." Victor laughed bitterly.

"So what about Alyson, my father kept that medallion and a picture of her in his office but he never talked about her...all I've got is second hand knowledge from a few of the old timers that knew her." Vet walked over to the couch and picked up a bottle of brandy, pouring two glasses she handed one to him and downed the other.

"I don't know much about her either, she was dead before I was born, but my father idolized her. I think that might have been more because she was furthering his research, not because he was enamored of her or anything. Most of what I have is from her files that he left me. They're around here later and I'll give them to you but for now here's a breif synopses of what I know.

Alyson used to be the best paid, or just best will work, assassin in the States. She worked by the code name Noir and earned at least two mil a hit. She was quiet, efficent, and never threatened to reveal secrets. Her silence couldn't be bought or sold because she couldn't be bought or sold, only her services.

Where she came from or what her family was like I don't know, you'll have to ask her, but we do know that she lived alone in an Oldtown appartment, back when you could still get a decent appartment in Oldtown. She used to frequent the local markets, preferring people and streets she knew to those she didn't.

It was on her way home one day that she stumbled into the middle of a gangfight. Your grandfather was a non-hostile casualty, he didn't belong to either gang although he was a low level enforcer for another, but was simply a victem of crossfire. Your father and aunt were just little at the time and, for reasons only she knows, Alyson took them in.

She taught them everthing she knew about survival and hand to hand combat but nothing about her profession, or any of the other regular professions in Oldtown. She wanted them to get out of there, lead normal lives. With your aunt she succeeded, Sarah became one most sought after interior decorators around and launched her own fashion label.

Your father, however, joined a streetgang at the tender age of twelve, thinking he was doing it behind Alyson's back. When he turned fourteen she gave him a gift, or a choice, depending on how you look at it. She introduced him to several highranking Corporation exces at a party...and he went home with the Boss Ryan McCully.

He never went back to Oldtown after that, except to visit Alyson from time to time. They remained close but never had the same depth to their relationship that had existed before. Aren thought it was his duty to look out for Alyson and Sarah's interests, Alyson kept shooting people who started to plot against him.

Aren found out about this, and well, he told her to stop it. I don't know who she was going after that last time, rumor had it she was planning a party that day, to celebrate his becoming CEO of the Corporation, when she was cut down." Vet swollowed her sixth brandy.

"My father had had plans with her for sometime. She knew she wasn't going to live forever, the youth treatments could only go so far, so she told him to start reaserching a way to bring her back from the dead."

"Cybergenetics..." Victor breathed.

Vet nodded. "Exactly. When Alyson was cut down my father waited till she was shipped to the morgue and stole her body. The morticians, knowing Aren would be furious, just put some random body in the coffin. Then father brought her back here and spent the rest of his life turning her into the perfect warrior so that she'd be ready when Aren called.

But Aren never called so first my father, then I, took up the task of making her bigger and better. As some new technology came along we adapted it to suit her...and then the strangest thing happened. Her systems started evolving on their own. I havn't the faintest idea what her limitations are anymore, though I can give you an educated guess, and her form is highly unstable. She'll be one thing one instant, something completely different the next."

Victor shook his head. "So we really don't know exactly what she can do do we?"

"Know what she can do? Hell! I didn't even know if she'd work until tonight! My family has spent the past thirty years working on a project that might have blown up in our faces! We didn't know what to expect! Would she wake up or not and if she did wake up would she be calm about it or would she kill us all in our sleep?"

"I don't kill people in their sleep. It's tacky and predicable." They both whirled around, Victor clutching the couch to keep from toppling in a drunken heap. Alyson detached herself from the silent shadows she'd been standing in.

"How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." For a moment they eyed each other, then Victor staggered across the room and enveloped her in a slightly boozy hug.

"Thank you." Alyson patted his back as, finally, the flood of pent up emotions escaped and Victor allowed himself to sob about the events of the day. Vet just collapsed on the couch and raised her glass in a toast.

"That was some pretty fast action ma'am. What are you going to do for an encore?" Alyson thought about her options. Baxter was going to have to find her to challenge her, worse he was going to have to find a reason for her to accept the challenge.

What was her next move going to be?

LordoftheNight · Guest Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5276 Location: Hell

Ooo, tricky. And *sulks* not a vampire really then.

I'll be back later to say something worthwhile.

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject:

Did I say she wasn't a vampire? I did say her systems continued to evolve so who knows what she'll evolve into. Besides you didn't see what she did to those ranks of soldiers. Just keep reading the linear stories Lordy. *suddenly remembers she's do to post another of those* Gotta post!

LordoftheNight · Guest Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5276 Location: Hell

No - I was just getting my hopes up.

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:08 pm Post subject:

Keep your hopes up, I havn't dashed them yet.

Solomon Birch · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:15 am Post subject:

More plot; yum!

Getting interesting now, though I can't think of anything right now. I shall ponder it...

*holds breath* :shock: ©

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject:

Gemme suggestions guys, this is supposed to be a fast write...

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:13 pm Post subject:

Ideas please...guys...otherwise I'll have to stick up a poll of my own and I hate doing that...

Chinaren · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:21 am Post subject:

weeping spelt wrong.

Well, good chapter Rai, but like the others I am a bit stuck for ideas. I am not feeling very imaginative today. :(

Solomon Birch · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:49 am Post subject:

She could go buy some pina coladas for everyone. That's always a good idea.

S'all I could come up with for the moment, sorry Kal! :(

Shady Stoat · Guest Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Posts: 2950 Location: England

She should forget about the confrontation. That guy will find her whenever he gets around to it and she'll have to deal with it then.

Primary goal. Keep the kids safe. Find somewhere to make sure that they're out of harm's way before the baddies come :)

Kalanna Rai · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:57 am Post subject:

Thanks guys I know I left you with a tough decision this time...okay poll's going up so get some votes in.

LordoftheNight · Guest Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5276 Location: Hell

Voted.

And C'ren - I should have known you'd go for that.

Chinaren · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 3:10 pm Post subject:

What can I say? I just liked the option. :)