tushanshu_logs | Event | Satellite

Event | Satellite | Spectres!

Characters: Any and all!
Date: May 23 - 26, 2013
Location: Keeliai, turtleside, ARSHEPHELIOS cluster remains
Situation: Repairs and salvage operations operating innocently have triggered an invasion of spectres that possess and wreak havoc upon all they see.
Warnings/Rating: Please put CW in your subject lines

Satellite Crash Event

Crash Landing | Salvage Party | Shocking Spectres

Questions | Keeliai | ARSHEPHELIOS

Salvage is sweet, but not all is well on board the ARSHEPHELIOS cluster. The seamless cylinders salvaged from debris and the cluster, now being frequently traded, turn out to be pods the first time one is penetrated or cracked open. Each breached pod releases a flood of energy-based apparitions hellbent on world domination -- or, more accurately, person domination (and it's not the fun kind).

These apparitions -- spectres, if you will -- are driven by a need to protect the technology of the satellite cluster that their pods are associated with. They will stop at nothing to see this through. Each is immune to physical attacks, but seem to be injured or dissipated entirely by things like electrical shock or other energy-based projections. If people touch them, there is also a brief window of vulnerability, but it acts also like a door that swings both way. Through contact, these spectres can and will invade one's psyche, take over their body and cause them to attack friend or foe alike! Should the possessed body be subjected to sufficient electrical shock, the possession should fade. Strong natural will can also drive the spectres out, but it is no walk in the park to do so. Possession is not the only tool in the arsenal, for these spectres use electricity as their main offensive weapon. They'll leave deep-tissue burns on anyone they fight, and show no degree of fatigue after constant use of it.

Ten thousand of these creatures will be freed from pods, resulting in a veritable flood of Keeliai, the turtleside, and the satellite cluster. With such a driven enemy, it comes down to killing or being killed.

Meanwhile, those taking shelter indoors may notice that the spectres will get into the biomechanical functions of Keeliai. Consoles will be malfunctioning during this time, with lines of mysterious code and strange, ghostly images. One might hear people screaming for help or hours of patchy radio static.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Natasha's been on the street for a while; the gauntlets are handling the spectres well enough, but she's starting to worry about how much power she's got left, and her breath's starting to get a little ragged in her throat. It's probably time to take cover, at least briefly. She's been slowly angling her path through the streets toward one of her safehouses, just a few streets away now... and then she spots Bucky.

For a moment, she freezes. She doesn't have to look in his eyes to know he's not himself anymore - she can see that from the way he's moving, the way the spectres flooding through the streets glide right by him, and this feels like some kind of retribution, penance for making him put a gun to her head before...

She almost misses a spectre lunging for her, but catches a flash of movement from the corner of her eye, and spins to meet it with a punch, triggering a zap of energy from her gauntlet as she does. It's enough to dissipate this particular apparition, and she does a quick scan of the area before turning her attention back to Bucky. ]

James! [ It's too low to be a shout, not enough to call any spectres that may be lurking near by, but pitched to catch attention. Even as she says it, she's shifting her weight, ready to move as soon as he does. Come on. Just follow my lead... and pray I know what I'm doing. ]

[It takes a very long moment for him to react, because the spectre does not care about the name, the personality, the identity of the body it's using. It has goals. And Bucky is not nearly strong enough to push his will through it.]

[However, his reaction to the call - emotional reaction, as well as all the knowledge of what she can do, how good she is - makes the creature turn his body towards the woman, focusing on her with predatory (strange) eyes. Then it starts loping towards her, a strange gait. It means to hold her down until one of its brethren determines if her body is suitable for possession... and, if so, takes advantage of it.]

[(Inside, Bucky is panicking. He doesn't see it retribution. Just as another thing he was completely and thoroughly unprepared for. He doesn't know how to stop it, to bar it from using the skills she's trained into him against her.)]

[ Natasha doesn't move at first, just lets him approach, letting her eyes go wide as if just realizing he's not Bucky, as if it frightens her (and it does, though it's not because she's scared of him). She doesn't know how much these creatures can read human faces, or how much they care, but it can't hurt to try and convince it she's an easy target.

It's only as he gets within a yard or two that she starts to back away, toward an alley that will keep them out of sight of passing spectres, the close walls negating the advantage his longer reach would normally give him. And then, once they're safely isolated, she plants one foot and snaps a kick at his chest, angling to slam him into the wall. She wants him cornered or off his feet before she hits him with the gauntlets, to make absolutely certain he won't escape before she draws the spectre out of him. Or accidentally stops his heart. Natasha desperately hopes it won't be the latter. ]

[The kick might have worked, more or less - if the creature in control of the body at the moment gave a fig about pain. Instead, it just bounces off the wall - and lines of electricity, pale and bright in the shadows, shoot out of his fingers at her.]

[It's had this body for a while now, see. It's getting used to him and what it can do with him. And that means... danger.]

[ The electricity crackles off her suit, safely insulated thanks to SHIELD foresight (or paranoia), but she does have to pause and take a step back to reevaluate the situation, eyes wide with real concern now. Most of her fighting technique relies on causing pain to larger, stronger opponents - the rest is leverage and speed and ruthlessness, but pain is a fairly large part of it, and she gets the feeling this creature... doesn't care. She can break the body, but she happens to care about this body, and...

She may be in real danger now.

The best thing she can do, it seems, is to end this before either of them causes more damage than she's willing to risk - and so she closes the distance between them once more, grabbing his wrist, wrenching his arm up behind his back, and using her hip and a quick leg sweep to try and send him to the ground. She needs proximity and a free hand to trigger the gauntlets. The first is easy. The latter... she'll have to work for, or get lucky. ]

[He will be so, so sorry for putting her through this, later.]

[And for this. The spectre doesn't care about pain nearly as much as Bucky would. So it twists around, just about dislocating his shoulder, and hits against her solar plexus with the arm she's not holding. But it doesn't manage to move away or make her let go of Bucky's wrist, since that arm is no longer responding properly.]

[It's... probably as certain an opening as she'll get, before it realizes Bucky can kick, too.]

[ He knocks the breath out of her, but Natasha's too focused to let that shake her for more than a second, and-- there. Exactly the opening she needs - exactly the kind of opening Bucky wouldn't give her, she thinks with an odd mix of worry and pride, and she moves in an instant.

She presses the business end of the gauntlet to his neck, just where it meets his shoulder, pauses for just a breath half-praying she won't kill him - if she prayed, this would be the time - and triggers the shock. ]

[Bucky arches up, hard, and his throat opens up in a scream that sounds nothing like his own voice (he knows his voice when he's screaming). Because the pain exceeding anything he has ever experienced. There is the burn of the electricity (he knows it, knows even stronger than it), but that's not the whole of it. His inside (the thing inside him) is writhing in pain within his body, screaming on its own. His limbs start flailing in agony.]

[Then the sensation of pain shrivels inside him, leaving him weak, and then sick. He doubles over and starts throwing up. Bile, because the spectre hasn't thought about feeding him.]

Edited 2013-06-24 14:26 (UTC)

[ Natasha grimaces at the scream, though there's a surge of quiet satisfaction at the fact that it doesn't sound like James - that the creature's in at least as much pain as he is.

She keeps hold of his arm, uses the weight of her body to keep him pinned against the wall as much as she can, free hand cocked to deliver another jolt if it seems like the creature might not be entirely gone... but then the struggle goes out of him, his body going nearly limp. Natasha relaxes and eases back a little - and then quickly sidesteps when she sees him lurch forward to vomit. Her hand settles on his back, between his shoulderblades, her eyes on the opening of the alleyway to keep an eye out for any more enemies. ]

I'm sorry. It's the only way I know to stop them. I'm sorry.

[Between heavings, Bucky manages all of,]

Know any way to keep 'em out?

[This is so not experience he cares to repeat, after all.]

[ Natasha smiles and shrugs, tone dry to cover relief. ] Get the hell to somewhere secure?

Can you walk? I have a safe house a block and a half from here. [ And when they get there, she can make sure she hasn't caused any permanent damage. ]

[Slowly, so slowly, Bucky straightens up. He's shaking, but his jaw is set (he's learned from the best) and his fists are clenched and..]

I can walk. But if there's any of that satellite thing tech there, we might wanna go somewhere else. Protecting what was on that thing is their... inescapable command.

[ She nods, lets her hand drop away from him (maybe a little reluctantly)... and then gives him an almost scornful look at that last comment, albeit somewhat softened given the circumstances. ] If I brought tech I wasn't sure of to my safehouses, it wouldn't be safe.

[ Come on, Bucky, what do you take her for?

She nods her head in the correct direction, but waits for him to lead the way. He's in no position to defend himself right now, so she's bringing up the rear to keep an eye on both their backs. ]

Okay.

[Too quiet and too tired, it does take a lot out of him to be walking, but he has to, or he'll collapse and never find the strength to uncurl from the ball he wants to curl into, right now (his body not his own) (and yet the end of the creature left him shaken). And he - well. It was pretty imperative, in ways that words cannot express. So he has to emphasize it. He'll come to his senses, eventually, sorry, Natasha.]

[But she's right. He's not up to fighting much worse than a moist paper bag, right now.]

[Well. To try to show off for her, he might try to take on a dry one. Or the equivalent.]

[Half a block onward, he's even up to paying enough attention to notice something - unwelcome ahead of them and tug her to hugging the wall and stay still, to avoid being noticed. Or he tries to, at any rate.]

[ Natasha moves to press her body to the wall immediately, everything in her going perfectly still in a way few people can manage. Just a few spectres, but she's wary of running into more than one with Bucky to protect, and she doesn't want to risk them both getting noticed, or test if he can take another possession, another shock...

Slowly, very slowly, her hand moves to her belt. She produces a key from one of the pouches, and presses it into Bucky's hand. She catches his eye, flicks a glance to the door of her safehouse - down at the end of the street they're on, the opposite direction from the spectres but too far to just make a break for it - and mouths the word go.

And she pushes herself away from the wall, preparing to cover his exit. For the first and probably the last time, she can't help but wish vaguely for a big flashy target like Cap's shield. It would make moments like this easier... ]

[She wants him to--]

[Leave her behind. She might manage it. She might not.]

[And he has no weapon on him that can make a difference to the fucking things, so making a stand beside her won't do much good.]

[Bucky bites his tongue until he can feel blood in his mouth, the pain making him focus, and starts moving, as fast and quiet as he can, until he almost stumbles over a stone. Cobble. Quick look back to see if that's alerted anyone... and his eye falls on a pile of, prosaically enough, trash cans. True, not tin as they'd have been back home, but full enough to make noise. It would be an easy throw if he's up to normal strength, but right now?]

[Well, it would give her a little time to get closer to the safehouse before they get to her. So he picks up the cobble, takes a breath to make sure he doesn't pitch down on the street instead of it, and throws it, sharply, over her head.]

[Hit. One of the cans falls almost through the last spectre.]

[And then he runs for the door of the safehouse.]

[ Natasha steps out into the street, placing herself firmly between Bucky and the spectres... and smiles, very faintly, as she notices the rock soaring overhead. Of course he couldn't just turn and run, even in the state he's in.

The smile grows a little, into something rather more dangerous, as the spectres spin around, searching for the source of the commotion - and find her. She's sure they notice Bucky behind her, but they're not going to have the chance to get to him.

She's run into enough of them that she's gotten fairly adept at fighting and dispersing them, and without an innocent body to worry about... It takes less than five minutes before she's turning to follow Bucky to the safehouse, and when she opens the door and slips inside, locking it behind her, it's with no more noticeable damage than before. ]

All clear.

[He just might have spent the majority of those five minutes searching through the safehouse for anything he could use against the spectres, keeping an ear out to make sure that if she needs him, he'll get back out there.]

[Then she's back inside, and he stares for a moment (watches for a moment) to make sure the motions are hers, not those of one of them (he'd know).]

[It's her. So he sags against the nearest wall, breathing heavily, finally letting the shudders take over for a moment.]

F-f-fuck. Let's not do that again.

[Longstanding habit around Steve has left Bucky rarely using words like this? But, right now, he finds it completely justified.]

[ Her lips twist into an approximation of a smile, too tired to reach her eyes, but there's real relief in it. ]

Sounds like a good plan to me. [ She steps forward, reaching up to gently pull his shirt-collar away from his shoulder, and winces in sympathy at the burn. She'd tried to keep the voltage down when she was dealing with humans and not the spectres themselves, but... there was only so much she could do and still be effective. It has to hurt, and it's going to keep hurting for a while.

Her hand drifts up to check his pulse at his throat - fast, but that's hardly unexpected. Steady, which is more reassuring. ] You should sit down. [ Not that she's dropped her hand yet. ]

[Bucky hisses faintly at the friction of fabric over the burn (he hates burns), but then her fingers find his pulse and, crap, his skin shouldn't be so sensitive, but it feels good. Real good.]

[His eyes stay riveted to hers for a long moment - it would have been longer, but, after a moment, he sways, a light-headed feeling making him precariously close to losing balance.]

[He tries for a deep breath (it also hurts, dammit).]

That... will probably be a good idea.

[Eyes torn away to look for a place to sit - the ground would work, if that's too far - he moists his lips. And tries to distract himself from the confusion still going on inside his body - and mind.]

Did I mention already that you're amazing? I mean, that was something. Amazing.

[Ah, there. A table. He can get to it. Slowly. No toppling. He's done enough of that in front of her already, hasn't he?]

[ She doesn't help him to the table - she's not going to damage his pride any further than necessary if she can help it - but she does watch him carefully as he moves, ready to break his fall if he looks like he's going to tip over. Only once he's settled does she go to a cabinet for a first aid kit and hop up on the table next to him, on the injured side, one leg curled under her so she can turn to face him. ]

I think you may have brought it up before. Though I can't say I mind hearing it again...

Take off your shirt. [ She starts rummaging through the first aid kit, pulling out bandages, antibiotic ointment, painkillers... At least she's certain these all work on humans, because she's used them on herself more than once. ] There's only so much I can do without getting you to a doctor, but for now...

Well, it's true.

[His smile is a little too queasy to be charming, a little too tired and a little too much in pain. But it's there for her, anyway.]

[And for being alive, too. And himself. There are a lot of reasons to smile, even if it's hard.]

[Then he takes a deep breath, and follows the instruction. Yes, there's a hesitation. No, it's not what usually happens when a beautiful woman tells him to take off his shirt, but then again, this isn't a normal situation. Moving hurts.]

I'll live. Trust me, it was worse when Steve got me out of Hydra in the first place.

... almost worse.

[Physically, it had been worse. Feeling something die inside him, even if it had been possessing him... that one is new.]

You were just electrocuted. Excuse me if I don't take your word for it. [ Despite the curtness of the words, her tone is soft, almost gentle.

She pulls out a cloth that's more or less sterile - as much as you can get in Keeliai - douses it with a sharp-smelling liquid, and presses it to the burn. There's no warning that it might sting (she rather thinks he should be able to guess that for himself, and that he's tough enough to handle it), but she does at least keep talking to give him something else to focus on. ]

This was on Steve's first... mission? [ If you can call it that when it's entirely unofficial and against orders. Like she hasn't been on similar "missions" herself. ]

[Things that Bucky doesn't try to stop: the between-teeth cry of pain at that. Between the burn an the chemical, the memory is just a little too strong to bother. His body arched, muscles knotting up across his entire body, clearly visible with his shirt off.]

[Though, as usually with treatment such as this, the level of pain subsided quickly, and he slumps down, going slack again. At least he doesn't glare at her, or whine.]

[After a couple of deep breaths, trying to steady his breathing, he answers, instead.]

Does it count as a mission if he kinda went AWOL to do it? [Beat.] With Stark's plane, Stark flyin' him part of the way, if I've got the story right.

[ She pulls the cloth away and replaces it with a greenish goo (which should at least kill the pain) and a bandage, which she tapes down carefully as she keeps talking. ]

I know the story. I think if he wasn't arrested for it, it counts. [ She looks up briefly from what she's doing, studying his face. ] What did they do to you? Because I don't know that part, and it doesn't give me much basis for comparison when you say that was worse.

[ Her tone's light, like it's a joke - he can brush it off if he wants - but the expression is sincerely interested, and not a little concerned. Telling her this is better than that time you were tortured is not reassuring, James. ]

Event | Satellite | Spectres!

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CW: EWWWW and creature demise.

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