2012-10-29 Hesitation

The alarm continues to wail in it's blaring loud to louder whine while red dances off every wall in the complex. The thunderclaps and ground shaking pounds have only gotten worse with each passing second. Experiment 13 has escaped. The subject is loose and has been for the past 2 minutes and no crew who that has responded and entered the lower levels of the hidden Cadmus bunker have responded to communications. "We need to abandon the project and self-destruct the entire site!" A panicked scientist pleads. "Not yet. We still have our response teams and Ravager can deal with Superboy." The equally nervous blonde woman replies. "Can she?" A third asks while sliding his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "We've not seen these levels from him ever." "She has been paid to do so. She better be capable. Where is his location?" "Still in Block C almost to B another door has just come down." "Then we still have time. Send Delta and Epsilon squads."

Ravager had been bored with the V.R., watching her 'job' sleep and be inserted full of a background that was not real. Reality was a cold hard slap to the face, and one that was good enough in her mind. It did make her who she was after all. Another loose cannon. The last thought bordered her lips on a smile/scowl mixture. It got her this far. "Oh, ET Tu?" Cold,blue eyes flick to the bifocal wearing scientist as she leans against the door frame bearing the black and white body suit and the large X of swords across her back in a target marker of capability. "Watch the real work be done." She states to them with intent to dig at the fearful bodies in white coats. She never would get it. If more-so then ever it was clear now to Ravager. His location known, she moves down towards Block B, starting in a casual stride that picked up pace to a run, one hand reaching down and unclasping the holster of the weapon at her thigh. This is what she does best.

Desperation? Rage? That taste of freedom is more what it is. Sought after, eager for... Superboy has been waiting, biding his time. No better than when they least expected it. They killed the simulated version of Rose and the Hepworths, he felt genuinely bad about that but at the same time he also knows they weren't exactly real people but it still stung. It inspired less restraint on his part while tearing the arms off of a power suit and punting what is left behind through the ceiling. Brightly lit eyes erupt in an uncontrolled cone of steel melting slag everything in it's path turning in to molten gunk; two sentry turrets and a security robot. He almost forgets how to turn it off in the process but then he isn't used to running around for real either. Half naked in just a skin tight torn body suit with tubes, wires and cords sticking out of him the bald youth carries on his rampage, striving towards that final destination of escape. Behind the next door Delta squad and Epsilon squad wait weapons primed and ready. Epsilon is heavy ordinance and Delta is standard CQB with close range tactical gear - they don't stand a chance. Even weakened, wild, untrained and chaotic the Kryptonian clone is more than a match for these highly skilled tech geared professionals. Its then and that very instant the door erupts outwards and several Delta members are tossed limply with crunching sounds against opposing walls or ceiling to floor itself - the blitzkrieg like rush of Experiment 13 is met with explosive rounds, gas canisters and heavy firepower. Round after round is poured in to the target area leaving a decimated ruinous crater in the ground and a blown out collapsed ceiling; lying within this crater is a wobbling youth. His eyes still illuminated in a furious crimson glow. "Target still mobile! KEEP FIRING KEEP FIRING!"

Moving down the hall Ravager is intent on cutting 'Conner' off. The weapon on legs sure was making one heck of a racket, one that has the floor beneath her feet tremble, while things in the rooms around her crash to the floor while doors fly open and other in white coats evacuate - the opposite way she is running. Looking up Ravager stops in time as the floor in front of her collapses down, toes of her boots tipping over the edge of once tiled flooring and concrete, the weapon from her thigh holster drawn and in her hand, in the other one of her swords was clutched, a white knuckle grip bore around its hilt. No time for hesitation, the man-machine is already rising from ruin and Ravager leans forward, pushing off that ledge and leaping downward, targeting him with that odd pistol that began to glow at its narrow vertical muzzle. "You sure know how to throw a party. I came to crash it." One blast of that provided weapon aimed for Experiment 13, targeting him center mass.

Superboy doesn't even notice Ravager as she swoops in like a hawk from above. His eyes are already flaring out and casting a beam of destructive force in front of him that causes the containment squads to dive for cover; mid heat wave he feels the impact of the firearm the white-haired assassin is clutching and it knocks him off his feet again causing that blast of searing vision to rake the ceiling collapsing in more of it, opening up a large portion of the next level. Pain and lots of it, the most intense he has ever felt causes him to clutch his seared chest as tendrils of smoke curl up off of it. The blue glow left behind where the blaster shot had struck fading away to leave behind blackened char marks on his naked torso... shock is revealed on Conner's face as he sees Rose before him, "Rose, you're real?" Automatic confusion and obvious hesitation. Maybe he hasn't left V.R.? This could still be another sick twisted program inside the other?

Ravager lands in the rubble pile where Superboy had once been until she knocked his ass over elbows back. One one knee, her sword bearing hand on a jagged piece of once-ceiling blue eyes look up, framed by the veil of white hair in a cascade around her stern facade and over firm shoulders coated in the advanced armor.

That small, yet punch-packing weapon never leaves its aim on Superboy, in fact, lifting in her own apprehension now as she watches the massive wound seal up into a mild singe. Her jaw sets firmly as she rises, her sword held out and poised at her side, but when he speaks her jaw trembles; blame the tension of its set.

Why did they use her /real/ name for him? They did that and knew she was his flat line in the reality of realities. His look... Was it real too? That confusion, a moment of loss. Or was he trying to throw her off. We'll go with the latter, it was easier to keep focus on her job if she does.

"Very real, Conner. In parts..." The last two words were said more quietly, but did not lose the stoicism as she approaches him, both weapons still aimed and ready. This was only the breath, the calm...

"What!?" Still addled and confused but the lines are clearly drawn Rose stands on the other side with her back to the men and women pointing guns at him. One of his captors... the oppressors who want to keep him here. "Get out of my way! I don't want to hurt you. I know this is all fake, my entire existence is a lie and you're all sick twisted monsters who are keeping me locked away. I just want to leave." Thrusting himself fully upright Superboy crouches as if prepared to launch himself in to an attack, he's predictable to a fighter like Ravager; everything he does is off intuition and instinct without an real experience or training behind it.

Ravager watches him, her eyes narrowing in their set as he speaks, one hand rising fingertips tipping off to the left with a slight cock of her wrist. She has no authority over the men with their weapons aimed and at the ready, but she's offering them their out. This is, after all, her job. The sword bearing hand only loosed its grip for that one gesture, but now it rested higher as 'Conner' lowers to a crouch, the blaster lowering to adjust its aim upon him.

"Welcome to my world." Ravager lunges then, but aiming high in her sweep of the blade, attempting to predict his leaping lunge forward while she manipulates her body into a half turn while in mid air, making less of her exposed to open attack yet swinging that blade through, aimed for Superboy.

The Cadmus shock troopers make no move to exit even with Ravager's offering; this is what they've trained for and they get paid for. "Hold your fire!" An officer shouts over the com-link as the swords-woman makes her move. "Wait for it."

In a mad rush Superboy closes that gap of where he is and Ravager should have been with a rock shattering punch; floor showering the area as his back opens up with that overhead slice. He is faster than her, stronger but she has experience, skill and of course precognition. More pain! He stumbles forward and spins ripping his debris encased fist out of the ground to spray her direction with chunks.

"FIRE!" Is shouted by that commander as Epsilon and Delta both unleash a barrage of firepower on to the escaped clone.

Ravager is not known for standing idle for too long. Any thoughts of pause, any hesitation is gone and even as her blade sweeps over him she does not count a win. She knows what she has to do, knows that it takes far more then a simple job, and that is why the money was good and so was the weight they held over her head for this.

Before Rose can land that eruption of rubble from the powerful removal of his fist sprays her, a chunk of cement striking her shoulder and knocks her into a spin that emits the loud hollow sound of her back striking the wall that they had the lab-rat back against. Bad idea to anyone that wanted out, and animal human or otherwise. Slumping to the ground Ravager gets her feet beneath her and springs forward, using his body as the super-powered meat shield against the squad's fired rounds.

Her landing was for Superboy's back, one arm meaning to twine around his throat to hold her in place, her blade a line of reflective surface across his front, the tip aimed for his hip as her other blaster wielding hand would press it into his ribcage if she lands that lunge for him. No hesitation if she succeeds, she will pull the trigger.

Everything is happening so fast even for a Kryptonian the ballista like spray showering him pummeling him to his knees as he tries to defend himself with the uplifting of his arms; it feels so close, so painfully near, escape, freedom... life. His heart cries out and he pushes on trying to surge back to his knees with willpower alone only to be brought low again as Ravager is once more driving him down and cutting in to him. Pointblank range and the searing pain is there once more as a blaster shot fires through his body a bolt washing through him. Superboy's eyes go wide the whites of them visible as the world starts to blur and haze over - feeling drugged gravity is suddenly a thing he is aware of.

"Now is your chance! Take him out, Ravager!" The intercom this time, not a com link. It is one of the Cadmus Project scientists. The next set of instructions going over the secure coms this time. "Epsilon, Delta, prepare to open fire and terminate them both if she doesn't act.

Going down. That /is/ after all the fun of this planet, and welcome to it Superboy. Gravity works and with her grip on him to ensure her blast lands she goes down with him but releases to roll off to the side. Not distant, but not too close to the ticking time bomb Conner truly is Ravager rises to a stand, the blood visible against the stark pale contrast, running from the corner of her lips and down along the contour of her jaw. Still set, still a firm line along bleeding into the more fragile slope of throat and neck. The very thing that makes her more different then him. Fragility. Her blade is still drawn and poised at his center, that blaster following the drawn line of blades edge. Standing over him her eyes flashed something; and it quickly faded with the intercoms words. The blade is shoved right into him, not stopping until it hits the hard surface on the other side of his body, her own form now leaned over him as intimately as she takes her job. Just above the blaster presses to his chest. "Get used to your choices being made for you." Again at point blank the trigger is pulled.

That cold feel of steel is met with equal chill from the eyes of Ravager as Superboy slumps helplessly to the ground his eyes glazing over while staring at her. He can't help but feel like he has been betrayed by her even if it's not the Rose he knows or felt like he knew. It is all too surreal and terrifying to really think about not that he can string thoughts or even feelings together in his defeated state, one more feeble claw at the ground as he shakily pushes up to his forearms and knees is attempted before falling face forward in to cracked rubble. No more movement coming from the clone. "Target is down, I repeat, target is down. Secure the subject." "Well done, Ravager. You are definitely worth every penny." The man over the com link praises. "Unfortunately this changes how we will be going about things from here on. We will need a more strict method of containment and monitoring as it is abundantly clear our friend is not as simple minded as we had first assumed. Briefing in twenty minutes; I want him situated in his new cell by then."

There wasn't all chill, not completely, as she stood back upright with her head lowered to watch the fallen form of 'Conner', her lips now a thin line or something utterly repressed - veiled by the fall of her hair around her profile. Like her predictions in fighting, she assumed and predicted his feelings of betrayal. What he knew was fake, what he wanted was just out of reach, just cold walls and many bodies between you and it. Oh she knows. Swallowing her head rises and she pulls her blade from the body, holding it at her side after a quick sweeping motion to spray across the rubble. From within the pouch of the belt that hung around her hips she pulls an inhaler and takes a deep breath from it, coughing and clutching her side abruptly. "You heard him." Ravager was done with this, at least right now, she has something else to take out the newborns aggression on, and heads out. They can be 'brief' without her.

On command the security force gathers around the blood soaked naked form on the ground and begins to bind it up, securing and locking down for hauling and shipment.

Elsewhere; "So what do you think? Was the experiment a success?"

"Yes we gathered more data. Imagine if he had more exposure to solar energy..."

"Our hired hand may not have been able to stop him."

"No but she passed the test nicely as well, don't you think?"

"As expected, yes."

"Well done people. This meeting is over get some rest we have plenty of work left."