Participants:
NPCs by Ling
| Scene Title | Deceptively |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A rescue attempt turns into something much worse… |
| Date | February 17, 2011 |
Roosevelt Island, Inside The Dome
There's only so much to do in the Dome, but what there is, is being done. At least if Melissa can help it. Being idle is not something she's used to or enjoys. Today she's left the girls at a neighbor's, someone she can trust to watch them until she gets back. Because she's going hunting, for food, water and more names to add to her list.
With it being warmer than it has been she's just wearing a jacket, though a long one, long enough to hide her pistol. Above the jacket is a backpack, brought along so she can stash anything she finds. Which, so far, hasn't been that much. But it hasn't gotten her bummed. Too much. So it's out of one building she goes, deciding to head to the nearest store type place.
For the first time in what might feel like eternity, there is as much of a lull in the Dome as there possibly can be. The sounds of people can still be heard off in the distance, and a moment ago someone was ducking into a building like they were trying to remain unseen. But even as the Dome above continues to blacken, the area around Melissa seems almost calm.
Deceptively so.
All of that is spoiled from inside of a somewhat borded up storefront as Melissa passes. Looks like a small hobby store, windows broken and the building already clearly victimised in the recent rioting and chaos.
The store is given just a glance by Melissa. She's going to be checking out stores, but hobby stores generally don't have much in the way of food or water." She does pause though, after a moment, eyeing the broken windows. "Probably had every last pack of M and Ms stolen already," she mutters. "If I don't find some chocolate, I'm gonna hurt someone."
There's a soda machine in the back corner of the store that's visible from the window, and it doesn't look like it's been cracked open, even. Hard to tell if it's the sort that contains water bottles in it or not, but it seems like, if there was any chocolate here at one point it's gone by now. The building itself has been totally ransacked - even a hobby store wasn't safe from the wrath of of the dome bound citizens, the floor littered with ruined books, board games, and crushed slilver miuatures. Severa displays have been thrown down and collapsed, and even now it seems -
That there may be someone inside, or at least the groan that Melissa hears would indicate itself. As would the sudden movement of what looks like a foot, just visible past the edge of a counter near the entrance, but whatever it may be attached to otherwise obscured.
Groaning? Melissa frowns a little, considering, then cautiously stretches out with her ability, trying to feel for the presence of injured people nearby. Surely the store is small enough that she'd feel anyone who happened to be hurt in there. But just in case, she moves closer to the door, moving slowly, placing her feet carefully, trying to be quiet.
Pain pings on her radar rather quickly - from inside the building no less. Another groan comes out, it seems whoever might be inside is genuinely hurt. There's no other reaction from inside, though.
The pain makes Melissa wince a little, and rub at her side, though she knows there's no wound there. She doesn't immediately pull back mentally though, but uses the pain in order to help guide her to the one who's feeling the real deal. She heads inside, pausing in the doorway to look around, before starting to where she thinks the injured party is.
The source of teh groans and pain isn't hard to see. Near the front of the store, on the other side of a counter from the one facing the window. Melissa can see what looks and sounds like a young woman, pinned down tot eh ground by a fallen display sabinet, a display case she had fallen down into shatter - almost certainly the source of teh crash Melissa heard earlier.
At the sound of someone entering, the figure shifts, most of her body still out sigh. "H-Hello? she calls out, sounding tentative and scared. "O-Oh god, hello?"
"Oh shit. No wonder you're hurting," Melissa says, quickly moving across the store to the display, crouching down so she can study its placement, and figure where best to lift from in order to hurt the woman less. "Just hold on a minute…I'm gonna try and lift it up. When I do, do you think you can wiggle out? I can take care of your pain for you, to make it easier."
Her face can't be seen, more less less her entire upper body is trapped underneath the display. "I-Oh, oh thank god," she breathes out, choking back a bit of pain. "I-I'll try. I wa sjust- souting the palce. The upstairs, t' see i-if I could hide out here…" There are stairs in the back of the room, the door that normal hides them sitting halfway off it's hinges. "T-The glass, it's…"
"Hey, don't worry about it. I've got some mad first aid skills," Melissa says, giving a quick, reassuring smile, as she effectively cuts off the woman's pain. Moving the display is going to hurt badly enough as it is. No reason to make it worse. And once that's done, she gets a grip on the display, and tries to lift it, even if just high enough for the woman to be able to move out from under it.
When the pain more or elss vanishes from her, the woman's eyes widen, bracing herself for when Melissa lifts the weight up off of her. She tries to crawl as quick as she can, but the source of the pain in her side becomes quickly apparent - a rather large shard of glass protruding from her midsection, her once white blouse stained red all around the the wound. It's a bit one, easily several inches long, probably from the broken display case. She's clear, barely, after a few moments.
The display is dropped once the woman's clear, and Melissa drops to her knees beside the woman. "Oh man…Yeah, that'll do it. Okay, lack of doctors. I can take it out, bandage it. I can try stitching it up, but it isn't going to pretty, just functional," she says, speaking calmly as she looks from the wound up to the woman's face.
The woman rolls on her back, staring up at the ceiling. "H-How did you do that? T-my pain, it's… A-are you evo too?" Her face is pale, eyes red. But upon closer inspection, her blouse is tattered and torn at the shoulers, dried and healed cuts visible unerneath, another visible running just under her collarbone.
"Yeah. Pain manipulator," Melissa says, nodding. "And damn. You said you were trying to find a place to hide? Did you get caught up in the raids the other day, the Humanis First bullshit? And keep looking at my face. Don't look at what I'm doing, okay? It'll go easier for you," she says, tugging her backpack off so she can dig inside for her first aid stuff.
The woman clenches her teeth, and her skin - the not scabbed or bleeding parts - glow a little. "You could s-say that, I just-" She stops suddenly, some tears one would think are of pain running down her cheek. "I-I'm sorry," she says, choking a bit again.
And it's almost as if timed with that that Melissa can sudden;y hear stomping footfalls on the stairs ahead of her, a shadow crossing the room from the window behind her.
The apology has Melissa's eyes narrowing. The footfalls have her whirling around, and she moves back, trying to put her back against a wall, her hand moving towards her pistol. The pain suddenly floods back for the woman, Mel dropping it, mercilessly, in order to have her entire focus for whoever is coming. "What did you do?" she demands, voice low, dangerous.
"T-They made me…" she chokes out, and as she speaks, two men, rifles raised, storm down down the steps ahead in single file line. She cries out as the pain comes flooding back, another one kicking in the door to the hobby store. "T-they made me wait here all day for someone… for my daughter…"
These aren't PMCs - these are otherwise normal looking men, strapped in kevlar vests, weapons raised high. Melissa, of all people can tell… this is Humanis First. One of them doesn't even bother to speak before he first off a burst at Melissa - rubber bullets, to her benefit, but still about the last development she likely would have ever wanted. The bullets don't contact, it's a warning shot of all things, followed by the man kicking in the door behind her speaks up. "Move one inch and I will put a bullet in you brain pan Evo."
"Goddammit," Melissa spits when the woman explains, and then her glare is turned onto the man who fired. "Oh yes, because you're going to pamper me for the rest of my life if I stay still? Please. We all know you're Humanis First, and we all know what you assholes do to people like me," she says, looking at all of them, absolute disgust showing on her face.
The woman on the floor looks helplessly up at Melissa, a look pleading for an apology on her face, even as the glow from her body brightens just a little bit. "You fucking Evos are so fucking arrogant," one of the two that came from upstairs spits out in response. "But now we have the uphand, and we have the means of dealing with you. So you better fucking listen, if you want to live to see tomorrow." Yes, he said live.
The man who came in teh fron door scowls down at the woman on the floor. "That shit is distracting. Jenkins, will you thank Mrs. Dent for her cooperation?:
It's with one wuick motion that the still silent third man draws his side arm, and with an echoing bang puts a bullet in to the head of the glowing woman. "Oops. My aim slipped."
"No!" Melissa yells when the gun comes up, then she stares down at the woman for a long moment. When her gaze lifts to the one who did the shooting, those blue eyes are dark with rage and absolute hatred, and her control slips, just a little, radiating low level pain. "You asshole. You righteous, hypocritical asshole! She had a fucking daughter. What gives you the fucking right to decide that we're lower than animals?"
"Sounds like she wants the same treatment," the one holding still holding a rifle at the abck of the room offers with a snicker. To whit, he raises his rifle, trained on her stomach. The way his finger twitches, it looks like he's just waiting for an excuse to fire.
"Because people can't do the things you can do," the man at the head of the room practically growls out as he steps towards Melissa, eyes narrowed and his rifle still raised. "So what else could be but worthless, snivelling animals?" He states this like it's fact. Duh, you should know this, you evo scum! "Treat people like what they are is how I live my life. So best to treat animals like the dogs they are."
"I'm not the animal here, you pathetic fuck," Melissa spits at him. "Animals don't have self control, and I'm showing a remarkable amount of it right now. You, on the other hand, just killed a woman because she glowed. Oh yeah, she's super scary. No way a big, strong guy like you could possibly take on a woman who can moonlight as a nightlight."
This time, there's no hesitation in him as he glowers at Melissa, hand clenching into a fist as he lunges at her, socking her as hard as he can in the stomach. "I heard the Midtown Man glowed too," he retorts as he steps back. "But I suppose you don't care about that, do you? Because you're evo and you're better than us. Fuck you, you fucking coward."
Melissa hunches over as she's punched, her breath whooshing out. "Right," she wheezes out. "I'm the one who needs three guys with guns to take on one woman," she gasps as she straightens, holding her head high. "And plenty of evolved people died and lost when Midtown went up. I'm not buying, dumbass. You're just America's version of nazis. And you see how the world remembers them."
"Nazis were trying to murder perfectly normal people. You and your kind aren't normal," he reasserts, grabbing Melissa by the collar. "A fuckin Pain manipulator was what I heard. You're god damn right we're bringing three people to deal with you. Only way it's fucking fair." He jerks her forward a bit, and then heaves her back into the wall. "You're lucky enough that we're not here to kill you, so save your fucking breath." He leaves out, of course, the "yet" that should have been placed in that sentence.
"And just what are you going to do with me, fucktard? Serve me tea and cookies? Use me like you used that woman down there?" Melissa asks, sneering even as nods down to the dead woman, keeping the pity she feels out of her gaze. And it's clear, that every fiber of her being wants to just hurt these men. But one wrong move, and she's dead. She knows that.
"We're going to use you to get us the fuck out of here." His hand tightens around her collar again, pulling her forward, and this time pushing her back out a bit into the aisle. "You have no badly I want to put you don't right here and be done with it. But you get to be lucky."
Melissa manages to keep her mouth shut, but gives the man a killing look, memorizing his face. Every detail. Every detail of his friends' faces. When she gets out of this, and she will, she will be visiting each and every one of them.
"Just do it anyway. We can get another. Island's crawling with them," the man who shot the glowing woman chimes in, sneering. But the one who's been talking to Melissa shakes his head. "He'd hand our asses to us," he laments, looking down at the one on the ground. "We got one less now as it is. Just make her comfortable, and let's get moving."
"Get her comfortable" is never something someone being held at gunpoint wants to hear, and this proves true for Melissa as the man with his sidearm drawn, the same one who shot the woman, steps to her back- and levels the butt of his gun into the back of her neck in a pistol whip.
Melissa may be at the mercy of these men for now, but she has yet to lose her spirit. So when they start talking, she starts to speak, to ask who, wondering if it's Valentin, adding him to the top of her mental hit list. But before she can get the words out there's a swell of pain, intense and sharp, then blackness.
The man at the head of the group makes no effort to catch Melissa as she crumples to the ground over splintered wood, glass, and another woman's broken, lifeless body. "Thank you for shutting her up," he remarks back, turning with a look back over his shoulder. "Grab her. We have to get back."
For Melissa, swimming in blackness as she is, she has no way of knowing she may have just gotten caught up in the beginning of the end of any semblance of life in the Dome.
