THE EVENT.

Short story?
chars:
David
Dr. Nikolaus Oehlberg
.........

David and I are standing outside one of the Talls buildings.

"David, are you ready?"

David looked to Nikolaus and cocked his head, "Who is zis David? I am Sergei Mikhailov, and I am always ready my frenn!"

"ha! well done. very believable. you remember what to do?"

David -or Sergei, rather- nodded, "Exactly, my frenn. Do not worry about eet."

"today at 8am. go to the receptionists desk, and say you have an appointment under the name of Mikhailov. The target's name is Yulinov, if he's not in the room when you get there, something is either wrong, or he's coming up from the underground. I'll leave the decision up to you, I'll be coming in from the roof, did you put on the device i gave you?"

David nodded, pulling up the sleeve of his right arm a bit, "It has been nipping at my wrist all morning, Nikolaus."

"what? here..."

=i take out some ointment, and rub some on the area around his his wrist=

"that should make it feel better. alright, now i'm going to get into position, you know what you have to do. lets do it. oh wait, remember these words: information organisation, Under the rock dealings, Russian interests, and- knocking the wall down. these words are code for various dealings do you remember me telling you? say them in that order and security will come down, but only if I comm you, okay? "

David nods, finishing the rubbing of the ointment himself, "I remember, Nikolaus. Do not worry." With that David walked briskly off to the building, not paying any attention to the bystanders, like a stereotypical beaurocrat. He eventually made it to the building, opening the door, smiling at the receptionist, he walked up to the counter, and cleared his throat, "Hello, Mees. I believe you haff an appointment under ze name 'Mikhailov'?"

=I watch David go to the building and then start my trek to the top of the building.=

The receptionist fiddled for a second, "Mikhailov...Mikhailov...Ah, here we are. Mister Sergei Mikhailov?" David nodded, "Just wait here until your time, please." David nodded again and went to a seat in the waiting room.

Time 7:30am

I'm climbing up the backside of an adjacent building, in its shadow. Using the skills i have learned, and the gear i have with me, i scale the building, climbing all the way to the top. after 20 minutes of non-stop climbing the 40-story building, i reach the top, and look up at Yulinov's building. the hub of his under-doings. his center of crime. I take off the bag i had been carrying and take out what appear to be fragmented wings, "this propulsion system had better work..." , I attache the wings to my body, tightening the harnesses to fit tightly to my massive form. I leap from the top of the building and activate the pulsars and fly to the top of the building.

David sits in the waiting room, grabbing a nearby newspaper and reading it, getting updated on today's news. He checked his wacth after reading, 7:45.

As Nikolaus gets close to the building he activates his Cloak. becoming invisible to all but himself, due to the tech in the goggles he wears. at 7:55, he arrives at the top of the building. waiting for the Guard to come to the edge of the building.

At 8 David looks up to see a two-man escort going up to the main office. He gets up and walks over to them, waking to the office with them.

The man never saw it coming, he walked out side the security cameras view and met my blade. it was a sabbath of blood. a holy union of metal into flesh. the hidden blade slid into the armour, cutting apart the fabric and material, breaking it's bonds, meeting warm flesh. slicing through the epidermis, dermis, and the subcutaneous tissue. through the softtissues beneath and through the base of the occipital region of the skull. severing the brainstem and killing the man instantly. my hand palms his head and moves it down out of sight of the camera, rolling his body into the shadows. Cloaking, I take the mans security tag, so that i may enter the building.

David is led to his target's office by the two burly men. They leave after a minute and David is left alone, though he's nearly positive that they're watching him via surveillance. Yulinov isn't there yet.

Yulinov's office is on the 100th floor.... 15 floors down from here.....wonder how long the elevator ride was....

I sneak through the halls sneak into the elevator... swipe the tag and click 'basement' the elevator starts.

=Yulinov hasn't arrived at his office. it's been 15 minutes=

David checks his watch, thinking to himself, "Something's wrong..." He thought before looking around for Yulinov. He tried the comm device and spoke inaudibly except for to himself and Nikolaus, "Something's wrong...It's been fifteen minutes and he's not here..."

I hear David in my ear.

"sit tight, don't look nervous, they may have cameras in the office. act like a typical business man. check your watch for the time, but be alert, something doesn't feel right."

I look at the number of floors i have till the basement, 74. why couldn't these elevators move faster?

"Don't worry, I've got that part under control." He sits back and decides to check his PDA, checking the news like any normal businessman would do.

I check security feeds in my goggles. I see David in Yulinovs Office. I notice someone going up the elevator next to mine, i catch a glimpse of the floor - 100th - That man doesn't look like Yulinov, but David won't know that, will he?

The elevator continues down to the basement.

David waits a little longer before the elevator opens behind him. He rises and approaches the man with a grin, "It is an honor to finally meet you Mister Yulinov. My name is Sergei Mikhailov, I represent IPF, Inter-Planetary Fuelers." He extends his hand.

The man 'Yulinov' shook David's hand with a grin, "I am aware, Mr. Mikhailov. Please, have a seat." They both sat and David noticed that he didn't touch his personal computer, he took note of that. He also noted that his Russian accent was inaccurate and deduced that this man wasn't Yulinov. "Shit," He thought, still keeping the calm facade and wondered if the device worked with thoughts, and tried it, "Nikolaus, I don't think this is Yulinov. Something's wrong."

"No, it isn't, He's not carrying a PDA either so i don't know who he is. He wasn't in any of the dossiers I studied for this job. He's someone new."

=I look up at the numbers in the elevator, 50 more floors to go=

'Yulinov' looks to David, elbows on his desk -another thing proving his lack of experience, "So, you said you wanted our services, correct?"

David nodded, "Correct. Your company has an outstanding track record And information organization is very important to IPF. I also had a hint that you're familiar with under-the-rock dealings, which is also important to us. Russian interests in oil are almost literally knocking the wall down, and we need to mine and drill as much as we can."

The man posing as Yulinov frowned and simply nodded. Before David knew it, ten men were in the room behind him, "I think you'll need to go with them, Mr. Mikhailov." David didn't question, but only stood, putting up a facade of a middle-aged man that had just soiled himself. He was thrown into the elevator, which all ten men were in as well. He thought to Nikolaus, "Okay...The ten men you promised showed up and I think we're going to the basement via elevator. Tell me you have a plan?"

"yeah, I have a plan, try not to crack, they'll take you a room and question you, they may tie to a chair and torture you, i don't know, none of the guards have any PDA's either, so hang tight, i'll think of something."

=I look up at the numbers again. 20 more floors to go=

David is thrown into a small room, and a mirror covers one wall. He had no doubt that people were on the other side of said wall watching. He was thrown towards the table and placed on a seat, a man is on the other side of the table and two armed men guard the door, probably more on the other side.

The man on the other side of the table slapped a manilla folder full of papers down on the table, "Sergei Mikhailov...Public Relations and Negotiatior for Inter-Planetary Fuelers, a regular customer to the UNSC. You KNOW that this planet is anti-UNSC, why the fuck would you come to us for business."

"I told Mister Yulinov already, your company's tra--" He was cut off by a sudden scream "Bullshit! I want a real reason!"

David tried his hardest not to scream back, "I have told you my reasonings...Please, just let me go home..."

In the basement, I lay in wait, the security door is opened by a higher security clearance card. I see the men with David, being led somewhere, probably a small room, to 'talk' to him. I follow them into the secured area. I look around, looking for where Yulinov could be hiding.

hang tight david, try not to die. I still need you. Now where is that bastard?

I look at the map I stole two nights previous: I find three likely places Yulinov could've had his office. I head down to the lower levels.

this place is deeper then i thought, I wonder if it connects to the sewer system. worth a try, might be a handy escape route.

I open the door to the first likely office space, and find a bedroom, with women in strippers clothing: Prostitutes or concubines. I don't see any men in the room so i close the the door and continue down to the next likely room. Walking to the 2nd room i hear voices, two men - no - three, by the footfall echoes. I peek around the corner to see three men in para-military clothing - rebels. I wait until they pass, and then continue.

In the 2nd room i found nothing, it was empty, not even signatures on the walls to indicate a secret door or passage. The floor was clean.

This floor is too clean, this must be where they silence people. an execution room. but only one way in? maybe a holding room of sorts? hmmmm.........


I continue my way to the third room, hoping that it's the right one. I soon realize it isn't what i expected it to be. the room was filled with surveillance-fed-monitors, live feed, and old feed. Yulinov was sitting in the chair in front of hte screens, watching it all, I see a screen with David, in a room with mirrors. I see a feed on playback, showing an elevator opening and closing with a floating passkey. I realize then he knew someone was here, coming for him. He must have heard the door open, but he didn't move. I move up to the chair, and slowly turn it around. "oh shit" I say, the man was Yulinov, but dead, by some sort of poison. His body had swollen, his skin yellow-green. his eyes bulging out of his head, they looked like they were filled with fluid, ready to pop. It looked as if he died suddenly, without his knowing he was going to die. I look at all the feeds, and find one looking into this very room, I type in commands to play it, rewinding it until i saw what happened. I was horrified. I check his body and find the mark of the injection site. I step back. I use my device to hack into the system, looking for the room david was in, I found twelve.all of them guarded, all of them occupied. but i could only find the feed for Davids. the others were offline. which frightened me.

What in the name of science are they doing here?!

"Nikolaus...Something wrong?" The man across the table slaps David, and David feigns a man in pain. He has yet to be handcuffed, but he didn't dare move his hands.

"What are your TRUE motives, Sergei? Tell me, goddamnit!" The man slammed his fist down on the metal table, the sound echoing throughout the small room.

"I HAVE told you! Please, I just want to go home!" David begins to feign sob, but the sounds and the physical changes of real sobbing are there. The reddening of his face, the tears, everything. He may have really been sobbing, but not about this. The interrogator was an amateur, and he didn't know the playbook.

I look at the audio feeds for the eleven other rooms, similar to the one David is in, I turn them on, one by one. All I hear for a moment is silence. and then, faintly, moans. groans. and then wet ripping sounds. and then slightly louder moans.
Forced mutations......? Or something else?
I look for data files in the computer, finding nothing the Black Hand would find interesting or threatening, I leave the room, still cloaked. Shaken, I search all the rooms i come across. after 11 rooms i found it. The Datapad with the data i was searching for. I read through it: verifying that it was what I had come for.
I could've done this without David.....

I leave the room, and head up to the floor David is being held in -its the most crowded- more men with guns here. but the places has 7-sub basements. I wonder "What could be down there?" but think better of exploring it further. Thinking it better to get David and leave before they decide to do something to him. whether it be a bullet or an injection. I didn't care, he had done his part, and come in blindly for the most part. I felt responsible for him. I look for a way to make a distraction -to get David and leave.

The man pauses for a moment, before speaking, "I believe you, Mr. Mikhailov."

"Does this mean I get to go home? I promise, I will not speak of this experience." The man grins and David can't help but to get frightened. Nikolaus...Something's wrong. How far are you?

"Ah...No, you cannot. We have something else in mind for you, Mr. Mikhailov." The two men previously guarding the door approach David, applying cufflinks that attach to the chair. David looks frightened, looking as though he's trying to break free, "Please, no! What are you going to do?"

One of the soldiers goes out of the room for a moment and returns, leaving the door open. He has a needle, and he flicks the tip. David's eyes go wide as he turns back to the man, "Just a...parting gift, Mr. Mikhailov...If you survive, that is. Which is debatable."

Before David can reply, the soldier stabbed the needle into David's neck, injecting all of it's contents into David's Jugular-Vein. He screams, tilting his head back as far as he can go in his current cufflinked state. His muscles pulse and his skin feels as though it's boiling. He shakes in his chair, trying to break free. He looks around, not entirely sure why or for whom.

=Talking to david=
"Not close enough."

=I pull the pins on of the soldiers grenades (the floor is filled with 50+ soldiers, I think there are more on lower levels) and run, the grenade goes off killing 3, and wounding or stunning others. I begin open the doors to three cells in the time it takes them to investigate and find the bodies of three men, horribly disfigured and dead. I uncloak and take out my Pistol. and begin firing at the soldiers unaware of me until that point.=

David keeps having the seizure-like experience, his arms breaking their restraints involuntarily and David falls onto the floor, still screaming in pain and agony as his body is altered by the chemicals he was injected with. By now his Russian facade is gone, and he's only screaming.

I hear Screaming, in one of the nearby cells, I run to it, soldiers fall with every pull of the trigger. I activate the E.Dagger and stab a man through the heart and kick him down. soldiers begin to unsling there Rifles and fire at me. It is a maelstrom of fire and lead. Everything begins to slow down: Adrenaline being released within my body. Everything becomes clear. I notice every detail.my shots are precise and accurate. each man falls with a bullet in his head. More rush in, but take cover and scope out what i'm doing. I run, jump and land on a man, forcing him to the ground, The E.Dagger entering his skull. the smell of burnt flesh and bone fill my nostrils. along with the unique smell of the brain. The screaming is closer now. I'm almost there.

David's screams continue and the scientists on the other side of the mirror just watch, noting down every visible side-effect. He looks at his hands and his body appears to grow, probably getting a few inches taller. He tries to stand, his efforts nullified by the pain, all he can do is lie on the floor and scream.

=I look around, the men stopped shooting, a man comes flying past me and is pulverized against the opposite wall. blood, bone and guts fly from the impact. I look around for an explanation. another man appears to liquify before my eyes, his blood explodes from his body leaving behind bones. only bones. not even his organs are seen anywhere. i'm covered in blood, the soldiers look around frantically. not knowing what is happening. Hell. I don't know what's happening. the lights begin to flicker and dim. The air chills. a shiver crawls up my spine. It had nothing to do with the cold.I spin around, looking for a target, slowly moving to the next room. one more till i get to the source of the screaming.
I get to the door leading to the next room: it's locked. I try to kick it down. but as I lift up my leg to kick it in. It's bent, and torn from it's hinges. and hits me dead on. carrying me several feet and the door hits the opposite wall. I hop up and look at the wall, then the door, or the frame. empty.

What the fuck is going on?

I cautiously approach the door. not being torn to shreds or molested in any way I run through the door. and the next room. which was literally raining blood. I didn't stop. It didn't make sense. what could do this? certainly no technology i've ever heard of nor ever thought of. this place is too fucked up. I need to get to david.=

David's pain seems to simmer down, but he's still in an excruciating amount. He rises and before he knows it he's on the other side of the room, the previous interrogator's neck bent at an awkward angle from the force and speed of David's movements. Although astonished, he continues, kicking the weapon out of the man behind him's hands, sending several quick jabs to the man's abdomen, he goes flying into the far wall. One man left, David rushes over to him, picking him up by the throat and throwing him into the window that the corrupted scientists wre behind, smearing blood on it.

All of this was done in roughly four seconds.

A Scientist runs out of a room, screaming. I watch as he is slowly brought to his knees and explode into blood and bone. I slip on his blood and slide at least a foot. I look up, seeing a shimmering figure. Fear fills my senses. I try and crawl backwards away. but the figure disappears. stunned for but a moment. i remember why i'm here. I get up again and being running to the next room, containing the cell david is in. then something explodes from behind me. I'm thrown through the wall into the next room, the concrete coming with me, as if hit by the same or greater force. I hear a series of explosions. the lights flicker. but no weird shit happens. the soldiers in the room look at me. covered in blood. and the hole in the wall. reinforced concrete lay scattered about me and half of the inside of the room. I look around me. in a daze. I notice two doors. one undoubtably leads to Davids room. the other, i don't know. I lay there. drenched in the blood of those who had been slaughtered by some unknown force. I begin to crawl away from the hole in the wall. None of the soldiers no what to do. They see a giant man crawling on the floor after being thrown, from there perspective, through a wall of reinforced concrete. they are stunned.

David grabs one of the men's assault rifles, kicking the door down and looking to the right, where the flying man went to. Nikolaus. I want double pay.

He sees several men, unloaing on them. He looks down to see Nikolaus, apparently thrown by something. He turns to check, his assault rifle hoisted up.

+++listen while reading+++

=I look up, seeing a changed David, and seeing him kill several men with an assault rifle. I look around, the world in slow motion, I see several more men, I get up.=

"David! mein gott what happened to you!? nevermind, I've got the data, we need ...."

=I'm cut off by an explosion somewhere beneath us, shaking the ground.=

"we need to leave!"

=I pick up my pistol, blood drips off of me onto the ground, my every move sheds the blood of the previously splattered. I shoot some men who come in through the hole in the wall, running from something.=

"David, Let's go!"

"Explain later, lead the way. Now!" David crouches, providing supportive fire for the men running from an unseen force, some being violently thrown, "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't fucking know any more."

=I lead David to the elevator and hit the 1st floor. I collapse in the elevator, opening my jacket to reveal 7 or 8 bullet wounds in my chest and abdomen=

"shit...."

"You're fine, I have supplies back at the hotel. We need to move. If we adminster anything here, whatever threw them will come at us next."

David waits in the elevator, looking around with his assault rifle pointed towards the door as they ascend.

=The elevator reaches the first floor. its completely deserted. I get up, fighting through the pain. I collapse and fall into an unconscious state.=

David sighs and hoists the man up with surprising ease and jogs over to the hotel, although it looks as though he is running. He goes back to his room, locking the door and laying Nikolaus down on the bed, applying a disinfectant to the bullet wounds before pulling the bullets out with sterilized tweezers. After which, I apply gauss and check for a pulse, slow but alive.

=David begins to witness what i've done to my body. The wounds begin to heal before his eyes, slow, but noticeable. blue bioluminescence emanates from My body, in the form of Runic symbols whose meanings have long since been forgotten. The blood in all my veins and arteries appears* to glow the same bioluminescent blue as the symbols themselves subside. I take breathe in deeply, still unconscious, the Data I have is sent to the Umbrae Umbrorum and is relayed from Umbrae to Umbrae. As it reaches it's final destination, Earth, the Doctor rises from unconsciousness to sleep. and sleeps the rest of the day.=

David, in his pain-filled stupor takes a picture of the bio-luminescence and the runic symbols on his PDA. He saves them and kneels, looking at his hands. His wrist-wounds from the day before had nearly healed.

What the fuck did I just get injected with...