Iona pushes through the pain, eeks out ergs of energy from draining systems. Pushes damaged and broken parts past their limits. She trudged on, moving faster than anyone should have a right to in her condition, trusting in her allies and their plan. Peter leads the way, running full out. But they aren't fast enough
Behind them a well coordinated squad of elite soldiers augmented by technology that shouldn't exist advances on them at inhuman speeds. Overhead they are monitored and harassed by soulles drones. When Peter reaches the end of one building and prepares to cross the street to the cover of the next, the Stronghold APC comes wheeling right out in front of him. Heavy machinegun brought to bear.
Caught between the infantry force and the armored personnel carrier, there is a hellstorm of gunfire, a world of pain, and everything goes black for Iona and Peter.
From Diego's perspective, sheltered in the comforting shadows of a dark alley, it sounds like a warzone outside. An instant later, all at once, there is an unsettling silence. Fog rolls in. Cold, chilling fog. It swallows him up. Then, from behind him, he hears a warbling voice that he has only heard once before: Zachary Chen's voice. The Ascendant who had manifested incredible, mind boggling, physics defying speed after his Ascension.
"
The Praetor would like to have a word with you."
Turning to face the source of the sound Diego sees the fog part. Out of it a blurry, black, vibrating fist fills his vision. Then darkness.
Diego and Peter wake up in a brightly lit solid white room with no apparent exit or source for the light that strains their eyes. It just is. In the room with them, contrasting with the bright white decor, is the black and bleak hooded figure of Praetor Null. Their emotionless Venetian Volto mask's black lips seeming to curve into the upside down crescent of a frown. But that isn't so. The mask never changes. It is just a mask. Right?
They ask you to explain the situation you found yourselves in. Then express their disappointment in Peter's blatant displays of power. Both are chastised for their inability to keep Iona from doing likewise. Diego is rebuked for his continued pattern of separating from his teammates and leaving them without the benefit of his more disciplined guidance. Null's demeanor remains eerie, alien, and distant. Even when they reprimand the two Ascendants, it is never heated or emotional.
Sunday 22th, Marsh 2019 -
Recovery
After the debriefing ends the torture begins. It goes on and on until Diego and Peter loose all sense of time and thought beyond horrors inflicted on them. The Praetor isn't there for all of it and you never leave that painfully bright white room for the duration. Eventually you wake up in your respective quarters at your new headquarters. Mentally and physically aching in the wake of Null expressing their displeasure. When you go gather yourselves enough to take account of your situation you find that a week has passed since the events at St. Luke hospital and you are informed that Ascendant Chen is in the command room.
The passage of time for Iona is as peaceful as the void. She remains unconscious, and mentally inactive, for the majority of the week that passes by in the waking world. She wakes a couple times to the sight of Dr. Sokolov working over her, as though in surgery. Except he is framed by mechanical arms assisting in his repairs of her damages components. When she fully regains consciousness Iona finds herself in the bland, sterile, and undecorated personal space that Dr. Sokolov allowed her to maintain within his facility. She is clothed in a form fitting white body suite laying on a hard blocky rectangle in place of a bed. The room is dark and silent. Iona is alone.
Data rolls over her vision, feeding her a systems report that shows she is operating within normal parameters.
OOC wrote:One week has passed. All conditions for all characters will have been recovered from. Everyone who does not have a HP is reset to 1 HP.
Peter and Diego have a "Trauma Trigger", a one shot Complication they may choose to invoke at any point to gain 1 HP. It needs to relate to the trauma of being tortured by Null and it must hinder your character in a meaningful way. Mark this down somewhere so that you do not forget and I know it has not been used.
You have lost all of the medical equipment that you brought to Wichita for the heart operation. As your HQ is now lacking in equipment, all actions involving that Feature will take a -2 penalty until you are able to acquire replacements.
You have failed to acquire the heart for Dutch. Null has removed you from the task of assassinating Anastasia, and set you back to recruiting new forces for the coming liberation of Hadron City.
There are a couple springboard scenes that I set up for you: Iona potentially seeking out Dr. Sokolov and Diego or Peter speaking with Zachary. However, do not feel that these are required. Whether you want speak with them or gather together and move onto something else either is alright.
