| From: | shadowtk@*********.com (Paul J. Adam) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Heavy Rain, Strong Winds |
| Date: | Tue Oct 23 18:40:01 2001 |
We're still struggling with the recovered footage. I know you want it
most ricky-tick but damaged data needs _time_ to put back together.
This we got from the FRAG's own system. Consider it verbatim.
+++++begin decyphered data
*****INTERNAL: BGen C Ernang, CO
>>>>>[One of them was susceptible, and this is an example of the
results, sir. They seem most satisfactory. If one in twenty of the Sioux
produce such results, we should have little difficulty.
+++++begin video
The routine is the same as it has been before. The FRAG guards aim
through the cell bars, motioning everyone to get back and face the far
wall. The door opens, and Willow is thrown into the cell, the door
closing even as she hits the concrete floor, shuddering and twitching
from the violent paramagical examination each team member has been
forced to endure.
The routine changes slightly, though. Colonel McNally calls, mockingly,
"You wanted to know about the 'five per cent', Lynch? You're about to
find out."
Lynch turns, to see Willow sprawled on the floor: soaked in sweat,
shivering violently. Whatever happened to her, it seemed to have done
far more than the painfully antiseptic examination that he and the
others had received...
"Willow..." Guilas rushes to her side, turning her head to help her
breathe. The beautiful girl is sucking in shuddering gasps of air, and
her eyes are rolled up to show only the whites. Blood trickles from her
mouth. "What the hell did you bastards do to her!" Herve shouts
furiously.
"Watch and see." McNally replies. "This is what you might call a...
field test."
"Willow, listen to me. You're going to be okay." Guilas says urgently,
trying to move her into the recovery position: her limbs twitch and
spasm randomly, making the effort futile. "You'll be fine. We'll take
care of you and-"
"*Hired man.*" The voice coming from Willow's throat is guttural and
contemptuous, surely not her own. "*You value this pretty face?*"
"I..." Guilas is obviously confused by that. Willow suddenly comes to
her feet, fluid and fast, her movements controlled and graceful.
"*Watch, hired man. See the fate of all beauty.*" The magician reaches
up, covering her face with her hands, then rakes downwards with her
nails: tearing skin and flesh with unnatural strength. It's done in a
moment, too fast for anyone to react, and it leaves Willow's lovely
features a ruined mask of blood from which her brown eyes still stare
with fanatic intensity.
"NO!" Guilas shouts.
"*Yes, hired man. Yes. Beauty exists to be devoured, and flesh is
_weak_. And now it is your turn to learn this lesson.*" Willow lunges at
Guilas with the same blinding speed, her clawed hands reaching for his
throat and dripping with her own blood-
Ironguard kicks at her legs and she trips, recovering fast to seize the
samurai's shoulders and bite at his neck. Ironguard forces her back with
a heel-handed strike under the chin, but can't break her grip on him -
Guilas grabs her from behind, trying to pull her loose from Ironguard,
failing. Willow is almost supernaturally strong, suddenly able to hold
off both Ironguard and Guilas-
As she turns her head to bite at Guilas's hands, though, Cypher reaches
in and presses at a certain spot on her neck. Willow pays this little
heed for a few seconds as she tries to shed Guilas from her back, until
she sprawls limp in their grasp - Cypher having found the precise
pressure point to close her carotid artery. Unconsciousness in three
seconds, death in ten... the cadaverous assassin had let go after five.
"Get back." Storm says urgently. "That's not Willow."
"Like, duh!" Lynch agrees. "Can we tie her up?"
"Probably a good idea, if we had anything to use. You don't have some
handcuffs stashed away, do you?"
"Yeah, right next to the cell door key, the pocket flamethrower and the
hotline to the White House Situation Room." Lynch says as he takes off
his T-shirt, twists it into a rope, leans over Willow's supine form to
bind her hands with it-
And flies across the cell from one savage blow, as the magician leaps to
her feet. "*Amusing, children of the dust. Have you no more games to
play?*" Lynch hits the bars hard and slithers down them, badly dazed.
Guilas begs "Willow, _please_-"
"That's not Willow." Storm repeats, backing away nervously: shot full of
prison drug, his magic's next to useless and his reactions sluggish, and
well he knows it.
"*Oh, but it is, hired man. This is the woman you rutted with. Come, lie
with me again, Herve.*" The awful voice, speaking from the ruined face,
mocks them all. "*Who wants to play-*" She's interrupted by a savage
flying kick in the back, Lynch's boot striking her spine with all the
force he can manage and sending her staggering.
And as Lynch recovers she's on him in an eyeblink, going for his face
with one hand and raking bloody trails across his chest with the other.
He blocks the attack on his eyes, and Guilas catches her other hand as
she lunges at his throat, and Ironguard manages to seize her other arm.
Willow twists her head to bite at Ironguard, and Lynch drives his
knuckles into the exposed larynx.
Even choking and suffocating, Willow doesn't stop trying to kill her
former friends, not even as her face turns blue from asphyxia and her
struggles become feeble. Her last action is a fumbling, failing attempt
to rip her own throat open in a clumsy tracheotomy, before she finally
falls still.
"What the hell..." is Ironguard's horrified comment.
Nobody answers.
+++++end video
It seems Project Rebirth is a confirmed success. We should arrange the
primary ritual at our earliest convenience. What should we do with the
prisoners?]<<<<<
-- Captain C F Gronow <21:11:39/10-12-62>
Fast Response Action Group
>>>>>[What do you think we should do with them? Kill them, of course.
They're of no more value to us.
Once the ritual's done, get rid of them and make sure the bodies are
never found. That should not be a problem, here.
As for the ritual... yes, I think it's time. We're as ready as we'll get
and our enemies are gathering.]<<<<<
-- BGen Charles Ernang <22:21:51/10-12-62>
Commanding Officer
Fast Response Action Group
+++++end decyphered footage
You already reassured me that this situation was in hand.
But I'd like a private discussion, sir.]<<<<<
-- SSgt T R Porter <22:52:26/10-23-62>
Data Extraction & Recovery
Cyberspace Special Forces
