(no subject)

[firstcylon]

"Are you sure we're ready?" Zoe asked, wringing her hands together before she realized she was doing it, and stopped.

"We're ready," her father assured her, nodding, as her mother came and put her hands on her shoulders.

"We're ready, Zoe," she echoed, looking into her eyes. "We've triple-checked everything. This is it."

Zoe nodded slowly, and took a deep breath. "Okay." A small, slightly tight smile. "Let's get it done."

It was only normal, she told herself as her parents derezzed to get things ready in the real world, for her to feel slightly anxious. People got cold feet about getting married, of course she would get cold feet about being born again. If something went wrong, she might be deleted and lost forever. Double up or nothing.

She looked around the room of her old home, walked to the window and looked out at the lake. The water was real now, as real as it could get in V-World. She had programmed everything here better than her father could have, but now it was time to enter the real world.

"We're ready for you, Zo," her father's voice sounded in the otherwise empty house.

She clenched her fist, programming the sun to rise. A dawn seemed appropriate, right then, and she watched the first rays come over the horizon. "I'm ready," she answered, and for an instant, there was nothing.

There was nothing, and then she took a loud, gasping breath, oxygen forcing its way into brand new lungs, and she sat up, panting, before she scrambled in panic when she found herself on a cot, clothed, and very dry, three things that should not have happened. Her back hit the wall, and that was when she noticed the other person in the room. The other person she had never seen before, and she could only stare at him now, not even sure whether her vocal chords would work properly.

Comments

[ohsnikt]

Logan clenches his jaw and presses the trigger.

CLICK!

There's a white light, and with it that vacuum of the world inverting itself inside the explosion,and the deafening quiet as the whole damn mess disintegrates around him.

...

After that, Red. The whole world swimming in it; all he can see is red. Might be the back of his eyelids, except he doesn't have eyelids, or his optic nerves creaking back online. It would be red, then blur, then whatever came next. Just like last time, and the time before that.

It hurts like hell.

What a gift, to be able to put yourself together again, not to slip into death like a placid lake. He's never tried to explain how it feels to anyone; the tissues of his body knitting back into place. It's a lot like a mess of worms squirming, knotting their bodies into the shapes they need to be. He can feel them pulling, and stretching. Every new nerve ending screams until it's cloaked by new flesh, and even then they ache like hell, and when the ache dies down they itch like hell. Nobody needs to hear about that. Some gift.

New skin is always so goddamn cold. Being wrapped around muscle that's wrapped around freakin steak knives, probably doesn't help. Shivering ain't something Canadians do without shame, but Logan shivers for a while just the same. An hour, a year, or fifty pass and finally he finds he's got fingers to flex, lungs to suck in a fresh stab of air, and eyelids to open.

He wishes instantly that he hadn't.

Not this shit again. Because what he's looking at can only be some kind of S.H.I.E.L.D. holding cell; only North American Feds got taste this bad, and only Fury would want to talk to him bad enough to snatch him out of an Iraqi morgue.

Logan sits up, and sees the girl. Nose must still be offline if he didn't smell her right away.

"Hey, kid. Any chance you got some aspirin or a beer on you?"

[firstcylon]

Time to test the new vocal chords right about now, and Zoe clears her throat, and only then realizes how dry it is. She could use a drink herself, but probably not a beer. Come to think of it, given her current situation, she wouldn't turn down a shot of ambrosia, but good old fashioned water would still be her first choice.

She swallows, and then tries, "Do you know where we are?" She doesn't exactly relax, except physically. He's posing no immediate threat, but he's bigger than her and she has no weapons.

She's up on her feet the next instant, coming close to the open doorway, open yet slightly shimmery when she peers at it close enough, and it emits a very faint hum. She holds a tentative hand out, until it is stopped by the forcefield, more easily visible when she applies pressure to it. "Frakking great," she murmurs, and drops her hand.

[ohsnikt]

Logan is busy checking out his personal inventory. He wasn't really keen on the new leisurewear, but it beat hanging out in a locked room with a teenage girl totally naked. Most outfits weren't explosion-proof, after all.

"Fury'll be along soon to chat, I'm sure."

If my head doesn't bust like a rotten pumpkin in the meantime.

"What's your name, kid?"

Probably worth finding out what she did to deserve this.

[firstcylon]

Kid? Great. Whoever locked her up couldn't have locked her up with someone who wouldn't condescend to her. Just for that, she's tempted to tell him her actual name, before she thinks better of it. If he doesn't recognize her, it's actually better for her. Who knows, he might have lost someone in the bombing.

"Rachel," she answers as she turns back to the guy. She'd be Rachel again, and she spares a thought for Philomon. There is that, at least, if he attacks her. They've designed this body to be stronger than it looks, stronger than an average human even. "Who's Fury?"

It sounds like a name right out of New Cap City, but this isn't V-World. Her heart is beating; the transfer worked. Besides, she can't program anything here, or the forcefield wouldn't still be up and keeping them here.

[ohsnikt]

"An asshole." He looks up.

"Sorry." Logan's manners were rarely up to the civil man's expectation, but he'd just been exploded and doesn't have any cigars to pass the time, so all bets are basically off.

"You a mutant, Rachel?"

Not a chatty kid, which is usually good by him, but Logan tries to keep the conversation going in case she's actually scared.

[firstcylon]

"A what?" Zoe asks, eyebrows raising before she frowns, and shakes her head. Mutants; that's a new one, and she's been called a lot of things. Maybe she is, after a fashion. She is in V-World, a mutation on the normal avatars, but mutation sounds too biological for it.

Never mind that, she has questions to ask about that Fury guy, asshole or not, but before she can, a hologram appears in the middle of the room, making her start slightly, but then she listens. It starts off crazy, and it doesn't get any better, from, "Hello, and welcome to the space station Proserpina," to, "We thank you, in advance, for your understanding, and we welcome you to Proserpina with open arms."

Quarantine? But at least now she has something to do, and that something has to do with the screen the hologram pointed out. She makes her way over and tries to get it to turn on. "Just my frakking luck," she sighs, frustrated, before she turns back to the guy whose name she still doesn't know, hands on her hips. "So. You're a mutant? What is that?"

[ohsnikt]

Logan is still blinking at the wall behind where the hologram used to be.

Proserpina? This isn't any of Fury's doing, then. He's never been very 'thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.'

Which means it's just Logan and Rachel in a quarantine cell with no idea who's holding them. Which is no good.

Logan's on his feet and popping the claws-

...
-the CLAWS!
...
-THE CLAWS?!

No pop. He's just staring at his clenched fists like an asshole, and no claws are popping.

"What the hell is this place?!"

[firstcylon]

Zoe is starting to wonder if she's not in a cell with a madman, the way he's staring at his clenched fists before he snaps. Then again, maybe he associates fist-clenching with a little something of his own, like her with programming in V-World.

"I thought you knew," she points out, with raised eyebrows, and shifts her weight a little to make for better balance, ready for it in case he decides to take his newfound anger out on her. She hopes the skin job is as strong as they meant it to be. Just in case. "Fury the asshole and all that."

[ohsnikt]

Logan hears her, even though his ears are suddenly roaring with rage and a powerful need to escape.

"I was wrong. This ain't Fury. He doesn't really do space, and he definitely doesn't do please and thank you."

He gets right up against the force field, which doesn't hurt him, but is menacingly tingly. Bet you bite back, huh Bub?

[firstcylon]

Great. So he was as clueless as she was, in the end. She pursed her lips in disappointment, tapping her foot on the floor as she thought.

"Okay. So what did you mean, a mutant?"

She still hasn't gotten the answer to that question, and if someone is running secret experiments turning people into mutants... She isn't sure which Colony would go for something like this, but at least she's pretty sure it isn't Caprica. The Cylons were enough.

[ohsnikt]

This one musta lived under a rock. Impatient as he was to get out of here, Logan rattled off the mutant spiel.

"Mutants are humans with a weird "X" gene. I don't really get the science bit, but it means we have abilities. All different, and usually not something regularfolk take kindly to."

He continues to stare at his hands, not the sanest lookin' thing ever, but he can't shake the disbelief over not being able to do what always comes so natural.

[firstcylon]

Zoe frowns, because it's really nothing she's ever heard of, not enough in rumors circulating in New Cap City - then again, Tamara and she had pretty much taken over the rumor mill. Tough guy here hasn't come out and said he was one, but the way he's back to staring at his hands, she figures that he is.

"What's your ability, then?" she asks, folding her arms across her chest.

[ohsnikt]

Something about this little girl's posture reminds Logan of his favorite X-Men. X-Women, really. She's totally unafraid and grilling him like he should be doing something to impress her. It's kind of familiar, and relaxes him just a little.

Through clenched teeth, he answers.

"Flashiest is probably the claws, which don't seem to be workin' right now. Also I heal =really fast and from stuff that would kill anyone else."

[firstcylon]

Been there, done that. The thought is on Zoe's mind even if it doesn't pass her lips, but that sounds like just what she could do in V-world. Real world deathwalker, then?

The claws, though, that's a bit tougher to imagine, and she purses her lips. "How come I never heard of mutants? Are you a secret government program?"

And which government would that be. Whoever grabbed them, it might give them a clue.

[ohsnikt]

"Sometimes." He growls, flashing briefly to his Mutant X ordeal.

"But the mutations aren't. You're born with 'em."

Logan set his nose to work, even though it was having an off day. Metal he didn't recognize, the girl, and ...bacon?

His head whips around to the little alcove in the wall, which now contained a prissy looking little sandwich that he didn't trust at all.

[firstcylon]

Zoe follows his gaze, and realizes that she is hungry. Actually hungry, not a hunger that was built into a program and that she could hack off with a thought. The problem with that is that they've been abducted, she doesn't know where to, and she doesn't trust the food at all either.

"Think it's drugged?" she asks, her gaze still on the sandwich.

Then again, if their captors want them drugged, they could easily pull it off by throwing something into their cell via the air vents.

[ohsnikt]

Logan picks up the plate and sniffs the sandwich. It seems ok. He looks under the top slice of bread.

"Probably no point in drugging us. We're going nowhere fast."

He's hungry, but isn't about to take food out of a kid's mouth. On the other hand, he doesn't want her to feel like his poison tester.

"Want half?"

[firstcylon]

"Sure," she agrees, and holds her hand out, biting into it with gusto when he hands it over. It's her first real food, and it's her first food at all.

After she swallows a few bites, she wipes a hand over her mouth and looks over at the guy. "What colony are you from?"

At first glance, she'd say he's a Tauron, except he doesn't have the tats.