Author Topic: Jailbreak, Part II: Electric Boogaloo [Daglobster] (Read 3783 times)

DragonSong · « **Reply #20 on:** January 18, 2020, 06:56:49 am »

She went still and quiet almost an instant before the laser sighting appeared on her chest; it seemed she had gained some of a hunted creature's instincts after all.

Bright blue eyes flickered over her captor, wide and clearly scared--but her mouth was a thin, hard line, the fists clenched at her sides trembling slightly, either with fear or rage or...maybe something else. It was difficult to tell which.

"...You won't even let me sit up?"

The question was perhaps a little pointless. After her four or so failed attempts in the last few minutes, she wasn't even sure she could sit up. Still, she had to say something, and with a gun trained on her by this alien--because that's clearly what he was, and even in her time at TRIM she'd met only a few--she wasn't quite sure what she could risk.

Recovery Operatives were paid well to keep their charges safe for TRIM's experiments. That said, there was every chance Farrow had put out a "dead or alive" call for her, after all the trouble she'd caused him. She had no idea just what this man was being paid to do: if she stepped too far out of line, her corpse might have earned him just as much credits as a living asset.

And Annabelle had never been particularly good at deceit or subterfuge. Every single one of her thoughts shone from her face, were clear in the sharp, tense lines of a body that should have had some softness to it, but half a decade of torture and experiments had made hard and lithe. And always those wide, electric blue eyes, trained on his face, lost and scared and...

Maybe just a little bit defiant.

Daglobster · « **Reply #21 on:** January 29, 2020, 11:33:30 pm »

He chuckled.

“Oh, you can sit up. Have some chow or water, too,” he said, turning the plasma pistol off but waving the laser at her, mostly at her chest. “Just not too quickly, if you understand me. I’ve seen what you can do,” he said. He rested back and kept eating.

“And if you ever raise your fingers at me, you’ll know what plasma to the leg feels like.”

He motioned to a small collection of provisions by his pack. Most of it was fancy, imported alien rations like “junga fruit with krata curry”, and his backup canteen was there too. He picked up his helmet and moved it a bit closer to himself.

DragonSong · « **Reply #22 on:** January 30, 2020, 02:20:31 pm »

Annabelle flinched back, already trying to curve in on herself protectively, though she knew it would be useless against a plasma blast.

When he motioned to the provisions she managed to uncurl enough to glare at him, despite knowing it was a stupid, reckless thing to do. "How exactly do you expect me to do that?" she hissed. Her hands were bound, after all, and she could barely sit up under her own power.

But she was not about to ask him for help. Nor would she expect him to--he was a TRIM dog, she was just lucky he hadn't outright shot her.

"...Why are we even still here?" She'd expected--or would have, if she'd had time to expect anything--to just wake up back in a cell in TRIM, rather than stuck on Edanith.

Daglobster · « **Reply #23 on:** February 07, 2020, 07:06:59 pm »

“We’ve got the famous dust storms of Edanith to thank. Can’t get a damn signal out,” he said, perhaps a little too careless around this girl, but there wasn’t any real reason act like a goon either.

It was a strategy he’d learned dealing with POWs during his military days. Act personable, crack a few jokes, tell the truth. If you don’t win the enemy over you’ll at least keep them thinking. An enemy trying to sort you out is an enemy less focused on escaping or killing you, after all.

“And if you slept off a tranq like that, you’ll get your strength back soon enough.” he added. His rifle was leaned against the stone wall next to him, so he went and laid it on his lap so he could have it handy, in case he needed to tranq her.

“And... well, there’s something else.”

He looked at her once again.

“Those two guards. Did you kill them on purpose? It’s a hell of a way to go, getting fried like that.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #24 on:** February 07, 2020, 07:42:57 pm »

The stricken look on Annabelle's face was probably all the answer he needed--but just in case, she suddenly twisted away and dry-heaved violently as reality--and fading tranqs in her system--turned her stomach.

It took a few moments for her to gasp in enough air for a response, and when she could finally speak her voice was raspy; she hadn't had any real food in her stomach to throw up, but her throat was still raw.

"...No. I didn't--I didn't mean to do that..." She drew in another shaky breath. Back to him, head bowed, she murmured, "They're really dead then?"

Of course they were dead. She'd known that the moment it happened, logically. But some small, childish part of her brain had been desperately hoping that maybe someone had gotten help to them in time. Maybe they were just...heavily wounded.

But no. No, she had killed them. She could blame the voice all she liked, but the power had been hers--and she hadn't even stopped running to look at the bodies.

Daglobster · « **Reply #25 on:** February 25, 2020, 05:22:49 pm »

"They're dead," Saendyr said, narrowing his eyes at her. It was an important thing for him to bring up, because while he didn't know the guys or didn't really particularly care about TRIM's goons (apart from a moderate respect for some of the veterans among them), he wanted to know how Annabelle felt about it.

Because apart from the cruel things done to her, the only thing he knew about her was that she was a lethal-grade mage who'd escaped far too easily. But seeing the horror in her eyes and hearing the shock in her voice told him a lot.

It was the last thing he wanted to see.

He looked back out towards the dust storm as she recovered herself, silently cursing himself. Shit, she's really just some poor girl, Saendyr thought to himself, and he drummed his fingers on his armored thigh.

"How'd you get out? I've seen capers and breakouts, subtle and violent, but I've never seen anybody just walk out like you did."

He offered a smile and a sidelong look.

"Pretty impressive."

DragonSong · « **Reply #26 on:** February 25, 2020, 06:52:45 pm »

Annabelle managed to pull herself together enough to glare at him. “Fuck you,” she hissed, wincing at the soreness in her throat but keeping that glare firmly in place. “Why should I tell you anything?”

He was a damned TRIM agent. He was just going to take her back—and she was starting to realize that he wasn’t actually going to shoot her, either by orders or...something else.

Probably orders.

She looked away, slumping heavily onto one elbow. Her head bowed tiredly and a few shivers that she desperately wished she could will away ran through her body. “...What are you going to do with me?”

Daglobster · « **Reply #27 on:** March 04, 2020, 06:28:48 pm »

"Because it sounded like somebody's gone through a lot of effort to get you out. Only way this could've happened," he said. Then, he shrugged, and continued eating. he spoke up again after a minute or so.

"That's my theory anyways."

Then he fell quiet again when she asked him what he was going to do to her.

"I'm going to take you back to TRIM. It's that simple."

DragonSong · « **Reply #28 on:** March 04, 2020, 06:49:48 pm »

Of course she'd known that, but hearing it said aloud sent a pang of desolate, resigned terror through her. She closed her eyes and shuddered, leaning back against the cramped wall of their little outcropping.

"...Just shoot me," she whispered, eyes still closed as her head lulled to the side. She didn't even realize that she meant the words until they were already spoken. "Your pay can't be much different either way, and it'll be easier to cart back a corpse than a live mage."

Her tone was blank, hopeless. Though her whole body trembled, her face was...oddly serene.

Maybe this is better, some tiny part of her mind mused. Maybe at least then I could get away...

She should have known it would never work. And death honestly seemed like the preferable option, when her only other choice was TRIM.

Daglobster · « **Reply #29 on:** March 23, 2020, 10:41:07 am »

That hit hard, even if Saendyr didn't want to show it. The way she told him to just shoot her and even seemed at peace with the idea just sort of served to further cement how wrong this felt to him. He didn't sign onto TRIM's best-paying and most dangerous security contracts just to retrieve their kidnapped torture victims, let alone execute them.

Why was this traumatized girl so important? Why did they call him in to do this, they knew this wasn't his area of expertise...

"I'm not going to shoot you," he said, and looked back to her.

"You're going back, alive. Doc wouldn't have it any other way."

DragonSong · « **Reply #30 on:** March 25, 2020, 08:42:20 pm »

She barked out a sharp, bitter laugh at that. “Oh, no. Of course. Doctor’s orders, after all. Should’ve known he’d make sure he still had an anomaly to prod at once they brought me back.” She cut a harsh, jagged sort of smile in the direction of her captor. She hoped it masked the threat of tears in her eyes. “It’s so much more informative to torture a live subject than dissect a dead one, isn’t it?”

The smile became purely an expression of bared teeth, and she looked away again. Slowly, carefully, she managed to ease herself back until she was in more of a seated position, back and shoulder braced against the stone.

“...You’d better decide soon just how much you don’t want to shoot me,” Annabelle whispered after a moment. Her eyes were fixed on the sands outside, and her voice had gone soft again. Hoarse and tired. “Because I mean it when I say I’d rather die than go back.”

Maybe she should. Maybe she could plush him hard enough to actually use that gun—if she couldn’t really escape, it was the next best thing.

Daglobster · « **Reply #31 on:** March 25, 2020, 10:03:52 pm »

He actually let out a short breath at that. He gave her a long, considering look, as if he was judging something about her.

"So what, you think you're just gonna force me to kill you?" he said, and he shook his head slightly. He had the drop on her the first time, but he reckoned that he'd subdued much worse in a drag-out fight.

"Think you're bad, just cause you fried a couple of poor suckers who shoulda been keeping an eye out? Like it or not, you're staying alive."

DragonSong · « **Reply #32 on:** March 28, 2020, 03:34:11 pm »

Annabelle felt her blood boil with hopeless, impotent rage. She bared her teeth in an expression somewhere between a smile and a snarl--

And the faintest hint of sparks skittered down her arms.

She didn't notice. She was too far gone, lost to what she was convinced was the helplessness of her fate.

Fine. He wanted her to force him to shoot? Then she would.

A feral, shrieking sound tore out of her chest and she launched herself at him desperately, shoving off the wall awkwardly and swinging her bound wrists in an effort to catch him in the throat. The shriek changed to a scream of pain somewhere in the middle, but she didn't stop, hurling her body into his wildly, with no aim other than to slam him to the ground.

Daglobster · « **Reply #33 on:** April 06, 2020, 09:37:31 pm »

Daersen tensed. When the lightning went through her hands, his crests lit up in response to the static in the air. Blood rushed to his thick skin and it gained a rubbery quality to it. He'd barely noticed his change either.

Lounging as he was against the rock, holding an edible ration with a bioplastic fork in the other, he was at a bit of a disadvantage. When she shoved off he opted to just drop today's dinner and raise his hands to defend himself.

He tried to block her two-handed swing with his plated arms and then try to catch her and get her under control.

DragonSong · « **Reply #34 on:** April 06, 2020, 10:36:10 pm »

Her balled fists struck his plates and she twisted, throwing the entirety of her—relatively slight—weight against him as she attempted to bowl him over.

Pain coursed through her, white hot and pulsing, and she gritted her teeth against it; though not before the beginnings of another choked, agonized wail slipped passed her lips.

It was useless. She knew it was useless, but still she fought, clawing at his face with her bound hands and kicking out desperately even as she felt him trying to get a grip on her, to subdue her.

“I won’t go back, I won’t go back, I’ll die first, I will, I’ll die first!”

The words sounded distant to her own ears. She could hear the roughness in her voice, but the hoarse drag in her throat was vague and unreal, as though it didn’t belong to her body at all. She didn’t realize she was crying, didn’t feel the slight sparks and leaps of electricity over her skin as she struggled and screamed and—

The thought was fuzzy and vague, barely coherent, but she acted almost instinctively. Hands still bound, she nonetheless tried to grab for the bounty hunter’s gun.

She had no idea which of them she was trying to shoot.

Daglobster · « **Reply #35 on:** April 07, 2020, 10:22:19 am »

"No, you w-"

Saendyr struggled against her, trying to subdue her and not hurt her at the same time, but she was fighting like an animal, screeching and swinging. His words cut off when she reached for his gun and he decided that was the last straw.

Ignoring the scratches she'd left on his cheek,

He turned his body so that his sidearm was less accessible to her and he tried to shove her onto her back with the weight of his larger body and heavy armor. If he succeeded, he'd try to put a knee on her chest so he could hold her in place as he tried to pull out the containment collar from his belt.

DragonSong · « **Reply #36 on:** April 07, 2020, 10:31:52 am »

It was useless to keep fighting. Even if she hadn't been drugged, he was still decidedly stronger than her. Not to mention nearly twice her size. Maybe if she'd had proper access to her magic it would have evened the odds a bit, but as it was...

Useless.

That didn't stop her from trying.

As his knee planted in the center of her chest she gasped, nearly all the breath knocked from her body, but she still bucked up in a futile effort to dislodge him. Then he moved, reaching for something on his belt, and her eyes tracked the motion instinctively, then widened.

She went very, very still. Her eyes were massive in her thin, pale face, locked on the collar he was trying to grab. She couldn't move--fear had locked every muscle in place. She hardly even seemed to be breathing as she watched his movements like a cornered rabbit staring at a fox.

"...Please..." Again, her voice was distant to her own ears, and a part of her wondered why she even bothered. It wasn't as though he would listen to her. "Please...don't."

Daglobster · « **Reply #37 on:** June 26, 2020, 02:14:11 am »

Daersen caught the icy chill go through her when she saw the collar, and he seemed to make a decision then. He brandished the collar a little closer to his own chest. He was tempted, but he settled for letting her hands go, confident in her fear of the collar.

“That’s right. When this collar reads that chip in your neck, it’s going to go straight to maximum lockup. Do you want that?”

He straightened up, still with his knee firmly on her chest.

“I’m not going to shoot you, Annabelle. And if you try to pull a stunt like that again, you better hope you succeed.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #38 on:** June 26, 2020, 09:07:39 am »

There wasn't even enough air in her lungs to whimper, though her body tried instinctively, producing a choked, pathetic sound that she was still too terrified to be ashamed of.

It took a moment longer than it should have for her to register his words. Chip in your neck. Maximum lockup.

A...containment collar?

Oh. Not what she'd feared then. Still plenty bad, but not all the way to spine-chilling, bone-freezing terror. The knowledge was enough to relax her body just slightly; she still didn't want that thing anywhere near her, but she managed to release some of the tension from her muscles, trying to show that she wasn't going to spring at him again.

Then she frowned. Ignoring what he'd said about shooting her--or rather not shooting her--she rasped, "The chip...it's not already at max control?"

It always was. Ever since her last escape attempt. At least, it was supposed to be...

Her eyes widened a bit, an unconscious part of her mind reaching for her magic, and then reeling when she actually felt it. Oh stars, it had been so long...everything she'd done since the security malfunction had either been manipulated by the voice, or the result of pure instinct. Feeling her magic again, actually feeling it, intentionally--it nearly broke her.

She clenched her eyes shut as a sob wracked her body, tears streaming down along her cheekbones and temples to fall into the red dust around them.

Daglobster · « **Reply #39 on:** August 19, 2020, 01:42:28 pm »

She broke down crying, but not out of terror or sorrow. He could hear the joy in her sobs and something about the whole situation ringed him as very wrong. He shifted his knee so he wasn't pinning her quite as roughly, until finally he let her breathe freely, although it didn't keep him from kneeling by her with his hand still on his sidearm.

She could shoot lightning from her hands, so he wasn't quite ready to relinquish his guard around her.

"Chip's been on standby ever since the security lapse. TRIM station tried to reinitialize, but by the time they got the system fully back up there was too much distance from the chip."

He sighed and stood up.

"Even if you didn't have a chip at all, you wouldn't make it half a mile before this magnetic storm ground you down. So stay put."