[006]

[grip_on_reality]

[Menzies arrives lying on the ground somewhere in the middle of the Plane. she's breathing hard, looking rather horrified and a little pale. she quickly sits up, looking down at herself in apparent confusion. then she starts to pat herself down, as though checking for injuries] All right... No gunshot. Fine now, then. Sure.

[taking a deep breath, she pulls herself to her feet, still looking completely frazzled. after a moment's thought, she takes hold of the ID badge that hangs around her neck. pulling it out, she briskly runs the edge of it along the back of one her hands, creating a small cut. she winces but watches with apparent interest as the cut bleeds red] And not dead. [she breathes a sigh of relief] First thing that's gone right all day... [she replaces her ID card before looking around, her expression uncharacteristically uncertain. she still looks pale and out of breath, and she clearly has no idea what to do now] Maybe this is payback for pissing off Ray.

[ooc: Menzies is in the middle of major trouble back home! See my OOC post for details.]

Comments

[grip_on_reality]

[she's still reluctant, especially considering she doesn't know the details of what happened to him during the candy mess except that it was obviously something awful. but she has the people of Manchester to think about as much as herself, so she takes his hand, then closes her eyes and thinks of home]

[without warning, she finds she's on her back again. she can see some sort of glass dome above her, and instinctively, she reaches up to push against it. it doesn't budge. she's very tempted to panic at this point, but she fights that urge and instead forces herself to look at her surroundings. the room she's in is plain and rather dingy, but odd in that it has a lot of wires snaking along the floor. she follows them as they lead to a desk across the room, near one wall. on it is a large bank of machines, and there's a man there--brown hair, glasses, medium build. he's plain in appearance, but his expression is one of concentration as he types something furiously into one of the machines. Menzies doesn't have much time to take in the sight, though. as she sees the man, she feels a sudden, dizzying wave of deja vu. she knows him!]

[and then everything is spinning, and she sees more than feels it as her hands drop back from the glass. she's losing consciousness! just barely, she manages to think herself back to the Plane]

[meanwhile, Riku has appeared in the room just outside of a white pod that's holding Menzies. inside it, wires are gathered together over her before splitting off into a set of electrodes, each one stuck somewhere on her forehead]

[and across the room, the man at the bank of computers sees Riku arrive and is understandably shocked] How did you get in here!? [he reaches quickly for a set of controls, twisting a knob]

[darkercalling]

[When Riku can't immediately find Menzies, he's immediately put on-edge. A cursory glance around the room tells him very little, but then he glances inside the pod, sees her... And he's beginning to realize just how wrong everything is here.

He can't even begin to think about whether or not to break her out of there before he hears the man's voice from behind the desk. He glares]

None of your business.

[Reacting purely on instinct at this point, he runs at him - no weapon yet, but he will draw his sword the second he feels it necessary.]

[grip_on_reality]

[unfortunately for Riku, he has to cross the room before he can reach him. that gives the man enough time to pick up a gun from the desk, training it on Riku and shouting with a quaver in his voice:] Stop or I'll kill you!

[at the same time, there's the sudden sound of heavy footsteps on the flat's thin carpet. a large silver robot rounds a corner coming from the flat's entryway. it's not as fast as a person, but it's making a beeline for Riku]

[on the Plane, Menzies is back to lying on the ground--except this time she's barely conscious, her head swimming as she starts to remember more about what's happened]

[darkercalling]

[Sorry Menzies, Riku's a little too focused to go back to the Plane yet...

The gun almost makes him roll his eyes, but the robot does get him to slow down and reevaluate things. He stops running, looks the thing over... and decides that if that's what's going down first, then so be it.

He draws his sword, letting it unfold with its usual mechanical clicks and snaps. He takes a defensive stance and, without looking away from the robot, speaks to the man behind the desk:]

What are you doing to her?

[grip_on_reality]

[while Riku is sizing up the robot, Frank fires a shot at him] What's it to you?

[the robot is still advancing, a panel opening in its chest to show the barrel of some sort of weapon. simultaneously, one of its hands adjusts, transforming into a short blade]

[darkercalling]

[Riku doesn't care that he's in someone else's world and should probably not make use of his mist magic. He throws up a barrier of darkness around himself, stopping Frank's shot and protecting him from the robot in front of him, should it decide to do anything funny while he's trying to ask his questions and get some answers.

Besides, a wall of darkness can be quite intimidating too, right?]

Maybe because I happen to care about her. Now, tell me what you're doing.

[grip_on_reality]

[Frank's eyes widen at that display, and he lowers the gun a bit in his shock] What--where are you from!? What is that technology? [as he calms from his initial surprise, he's starting to look quite interested]

If you must know, I want information. So as you can see, this is all very above board, and I'll release her when I'm done. [so he says, anyway] Now what do you want, really? Or are you actually that interested in your...relationship...with that human?

[darkercalling]

[Faint smirk~] That secret stays with me.

[He glances back at the pod, then back to the man.] I want you to let her go now. Get your information another way.

[grip_on_reality]

[the man's look of interest quickly switches to annoyance] What sort of idiot are you? That's a mindscape generator! I can't just let her go. Not if you want her in a viable condition, anyway!

[meanwhile, the robot, in its mechanical thinking, is about to ram the wall of darkness]

[darkercalling]

Fine. Then stop whatever it is you're doing with it and release her safely. I'm not going to wait for you to finish.

[The robot can ram at it all it wants, it's just going to slowly chip away at the metal. Of course, if it persists and annoys Riku enough, he might have to deal with it personally. But for now, he'll let it keep crashing.]

[grip_on_reality]

[the man scoffs at him] You really have no idea how a mindscape generator works, do you? I can't release her at all in the middle of a scenario! It has to end before it's even possible. [eyeing Riku] And why would I release her? What are you offering?

[it's definitely still crashing. robots are known more for persistence than common sense]

[darkercalling]

[Riku's not phased by the attempted stabs at his intelligence. He just shrugs a shoulder.]

Then how do you end a scenario?

[Offering, huh? He almost looks a bit disgusted, but he fights that feeling down and does his best to keep his cool. He thinks about it for a moment... until he has an idea.]

Let her go, and I'll tell you about this.

[Then he turns to the robot. He extends his hand, palm forward, and the dark barrier twists into a burst of black energy and, more importantly, current that not only hits the robot with incredible force, but seems to seep inside of it like steam between cracks.]

[grip_on_reality]

[the man looks at him like he really must be an imbecile] You don't. [but he put his hands back on the controls, doing something] If you knew anything, you'd know that the scenario only ends when it meets its programmed objective. I can't make it end any more than you can!

[but he does perk up at that offer] You can share that technology?

[the robot stumbles backwards at the force of the blast. and then the weapon in its chest starts to glow--clearly you've convinced it to switch tactics, Riku]

[meanwhile, the man is now staring in shock at the readings on his machines] What!? Where has she-!? How!?

[darkercalling]

So then this... [Another dark sphere of energy appears in his hand.] ... is something you're interested in?

[He's about to elaborate a little, but the robot starts warming up its weapon and that gets his attention instead. He shifts his position, ready to rush the thing and start a proper fight.

Then the man mentions that Menzies is gone, and Riku knows exactly what's happened. He smirks, a little smug, and wills himself back to the Plane.]

[grip_on_reality]

[when he gets there, he'll find Menzies on the ground, staring up rather blankly. she's caught somewhere between conscious and not, her mind still reeling from the shock of memory mixed with very nearly getting sucked into a new mindscape before she got out of there]

[darkercalling]

[He immediately rushes to her side, dropping to the ground and placing a hand on her shoulder. The blank look is not at all comforting, thanks, not after what he said about pulling her out before whatever the hell scenario-thing-whatever was done...]

Menzies? ... Menzies!

[Please, please say something djsakfl]

[grip_on_reality]

[she blinks, wincing as the sound and physical contact pulls her back to reality] Huh? What...what happened? Frank... [she turns, expecting to find herself still in the room. she blinks at the Plane] We got out? [she closes her eyes, cringing] Oh hell, that hurts.

[darkercalling]

[He silently lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding in the first place. She's okay... at least there's that. He manages to give her a very tiny, but very relieved smile.]

Yeah. We're back. And I think I'm beginning to understand what's going on.

[He moves to help her sit up, if she wants it.] Hey. Let's get you some water, or something.

[grip_on_reality]

[she accepts the help without protest, putting a hand to her head. her voice is pained] Mind explaining what's going on first, since you seem to know so much about it?

[darkercalling]

[Honestly, he's still trying to piece everything together for himself. Not all of it makes sense, after all.]

You were in... some sort of machine. The man back there called it a mindscape generator. Do you know what that is?

[grip_on_reality]

A what? [she frowns darkly] No, but I can guess what it might be. What else did Frank have to say about it? [because she remembers Frank now, and she is very much not happy about this]

[darkercalling]

He said that you were in a... scenario. And that he can't release you until it's finished it's programming. [He shakes his head.] He wants some sort of information.

Frank? So you know him?

[grip_on_reality]

He didn't 'appen to say what, did he?

[she nods] Oh, I remember him now. New arrival--I was supposed to meet him at a café after my shift on Monday. But then there was a robbery and got we gassed--no, wait. I did meet him. [she sighs] Damn, first I've got memories that make no sense, and now I remember the same thing more than once... Just what is he playing at!?

[darkercalling]

No. He didn't.

The same thing more than once...? [wait.] What if that's the scenario?

[grip_on_reality]

[she makes a face] 'Course he didn't.

[it takes her mind a brief moment to process that--she's still having a tough time concentrating] I gather one of them is, anyway. Probably the one where I died. [she sighs, still fighting to put all this together] So he's got me in some sort of machine, which keeps putting me in the middle of alien invasions. That kill me. [her expression is highly unamused] What the hell sort of information does he get out of that?