ABSOLUTE POTENTIAL: A Superhuman RP

[Lord Wraith]

| IC | https://www.iwakuroleplay.com/threads/absolute-potential.51074/OOC |

"Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere."
-Gilbert K. Chesterton
​

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Humanity is constantly changing. Our way of life is forever adapting and evolving to everything around us, shaping to keep up with an ever revolving world. Society changes and along with it so does our culture. Technology is constantly barreling forward as new devices are being designed every hour of the day. But humanity itself is also changing, in ways mostly unseen to the naked but under a microscope there's a very different story.
After millenniums of Earth being routinely doused in what is known as coronal mass ejections, the side effects are starting to show. The coronal mass ejections or CMEs, are a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields being released into space and often directly at Earth. Most often these CMEs also accompany solar flares which release addition energy from the sun into space only for it to collide with Earth. Carried within these events are high energy particles and it is these particles which have began to cause humanity to change and develop new and sometimes unfathomable abilities. Composed primarily of high-energy protons and atomic nuclei, they are of mysterious origin and the limits to their potential remain unknown.

As such the world has reacted in numerous ways to the emergence of these so called 'super-humans'. Some cities such as Chicago, have come to recognized them as allies and forces for the betterment of mankind. While other cities such as Moscow have seen the darker side of humans containing seemingly unlimited potential as the city was dragged down and nearly destroyed by a man possessing control over deadly radioactive blasts of energy. As such, these 'super-humans' walk a fine line in how much they can reveal themselves, some prefer to come out under the cover of night. While others cover themselves in elaborate disguises to keep their identity safe, and yet there are those who are still brazen enough to show their faces and the full force of what exactly they can do. It is actions like this that strains the relations between 'super-humans' and the 'mundanes', going forward it will only be their actions that defines how much faith and trust humanity chooses to put in them. Or if all else fails, how much force they'll put into hunting down and exterminating those who endanger lives.

Ultimately the 'super-humans' have been dealt the winning hand, it's up to them whether they choose to play it or not.
​

Gareth Wagner, #4dffff

Everything had happened so fast. Gareth's head was spinning as he head the sound of loosely fitted wheels rattling beneath him as they echoed through the bright hallway. The Particle Accelerator demonstration, that's where he had been what felt like only moments before. Sitting beside Alyssa, she had smell wonderful, like something sweet. What had it been? Strawberries? Was it strawberries? Like the type that had been doused in syrup and whipped cream in a pie. Maybe she smell like strawberry pie?

Gareth tried to shook his head but it didn't move. Fear ran through his body as he suddenly realized he could be paralyzed. Forcing his eyes to look to the side, a slight pang of relief washed over Gareth as he realized that he was restrained to a stretcher. But why was he on a stretcher? His mind struggled to piece together what exactly had happened as he closed his eyes again forcing his mind to recall the events of the last few hours. That smell again, that sweet strawberry smell, Alyssa's red hair, the sounds of laughter before the taste of chocolate filled his mouth. He was back in the auditorium, the demonstation on the stage was just getting underway. Gareth remembered looking around the room before accidentally locking eyes with a younger student. The younger male's eyes met Gareth with an icy intensity as they stared through him as though Gareth was nothing to the other male despite the other's smaller size and stature. Having shook off the feeling, Gareth had turned his attention back to the stage as a loud hum began to fill the room. There was a flash as something went wrong, the engineering students scrambling to maintain the device, Gareth remembered looking around for his roommate Justin. Justin was one of the University's Engineering students and likely had been involved in some way with this experiment. Another flash filled the auditorium as Gareth and Alyssa were suddenly lifted from their seats. Sounds of pain came from all over the room, Gareth himself included as his body felt as though it was filled with electricity, his skin crawling as it struggled to shed itself from his bones. Then suddenly nothing as Gareth remembered falling to the floor before waking up on a stretcher.

His eyes felt heavy as he was pushed into the Intensive Care Unit before passing out, the world of white around him suddenly fading to black.

When Gareth awoke again, he found to his surpirse that nearly three days had passed with the hospital over occupied due to students and community alike from the demonstration filling up the building. Talking to several doctors, Gareth was surprised to find that despite the immense pain he had suffered through, he was given a clean bill of health from the hospital. As he sat up in the bed, they ran some final examinations before sending him on his way. Exiting the hospital, Gareth whistled for a cab as he slung his leather jacket over his shoulder. No matter what exactly had happened he knew what he wanted right now, a pizza and cold glass of Rum and Coke.

Getting into the cab, Gareth looked out the window nonchalantly as he pulled out his cellphone and sent Justin a text.

'Hey, are you in the dorm? I'm on my way back. Thinking we need a pie with all the toppings and a nice tall glass of Rum and Coke. You down?'

Looking back out the cab's window, Gareth watched San Francisco fly by. It was a wonderful city, but right now all he wanted to do was forget about it.

​

 

[Roman]

'Hey, are you in the dorm? I'm on my way back. Thinking we need a pie with all the toppings and a nice tall glass of Rum and Coke. You down?'

Justin half-glanced at his phone, the words jumping from his screen to his eyes to his mind and into conscious thought. Spirits? No. Too quick, too expensive, not enough time to nurse it and slowly calm yourself. Pints, though. Pints work wonders. A good long beer was all you needed for any problem in the world. Especially whatever this problem was. An odd emptiness. Half of a whole. Unclear thoughts, hazy memories. He didn't have the whole story, the whole image. Everything was fuzzy. Memories of the demo, of an overload, of a pulse. Something torn from him? Maybe? Jesus...

Pints. Oh, god, pints.

'Green Fairy. Corner booth. One pint waiting and two empty.'

He hit send and then headed off, no longer paralyzed over the edge of his bed. He'd been like that most of the afternoon, having escaped the malfunction with a minor headache and a feeling he could only equate to hunger, and then only ignore when two patties and a few healthy portions of chips from the local burger joint did little to dissuade his stomach. In the three days since then he'd been strangely absent from himself, but his dreams the past few nights were invaded by snatches of the city he lived in. Almost memories, his brain building subconscious images from conscious memories...but it felt more real than the logical explanation he'd offered himself. Almost lucid in his sleep. Disconnected from his own mind and hooking up to another. Whatever it was, it could be discussed. Gunshot would lend an ear.

 

[N/A]

A male had walked out of a Starbucks. Apparently he was just released from the hospital not to long ago and it had been three days since he passed out. But it seemed like it was only a few hours ago or just yesterday that the whole 'mechanical incident' thing had happened and the former patient had decided to walk himself home before going to the university he went to. He was hoping they would give him Atleast a day or two off since he was just released from the hospital, not to mention felt so worn out and beat up that even the most simplest twitch of his fingers felt sore to him. What exactly did happen anyways..? More importantly, how? Thought the brunette male named Liam but he shakes the idea out, even thinking felt painful to him as of now.

Within a few minutes of walking, dressed correctly for the windiness of the fall weather, Liam took his iPhone out from his pockets which was only 50% charged exactly and he checks his messages--mostly focusing on a specific name. Natalie Lafayette--Past ballerina, occasional model, now aspiring to be a former journalist as a career. She often went on and on about her thrill seeking adventures and dangerous experiences, which often concerned Liam and she never ceased to stop the risk taking--Though she was no different then him in his opinion.

Quickly tapping her name with his right thumb, he stared at the text before quickly responding.

<{ Hey! I heard you were going to be released today--Where are you? }
{ Yeah, I'm just heading to the university. Across from Starbucks, the closest
One nearby. I'm fine now. }>
<{ Really!? I'm around! Wait there! }

Natalie's text read. Right across the street from Starbucks, the male completely stopped and stand at a nearby bench waiting as he took a sip from his hot beverage. Upon standing and looking around here and there, Liam for whatever reason had caught sight of a stray cat crossing the street quickly, avoiding to get run over. For some reason this amazed him, and soon the cat had ran to a tree next to him, climbing up with ease and resting on a branch over his head directly, stretching cattily before sitting and leaning its head forward staring down at the young male. Liam furrowed his eyebrows. Why was he so drawn and fascinated by this creature? An everyday cat and the cat meowed, cocking its head to the side. Without trying Liam had managed to amaze himself and had soon heard a voice from it, mentally to him,

"What are you looking at?"

He heard crystal clear from the cat. Immediately, Liam shook his head again thinking it must be temporary affects of anesthesia or whatever drug he still had in his system from the hospital. The cat then jumped down from the high branch, landing perfectly on the ground flatly on the soles of its paws and purred, wrapping itself against the ankles of Liam. Liam tried stepping away, careful not to hurt the cat and he sat on a bench, processing things. What just happened? Was this real life? He rested his arm on the arm rest of the bench, leaning his weight on it sideways slightly and the cat sat next to his feet looking up at him. Animals never went to humans so naturally like this, especially strays in most cases unless there was food or friendliness, but then again Liam never had an animal approach him at all Infact and he tests the cat."Did you just speak?" He asks. The cat meowed, but to Liam it clearly answered back,"Yes. All animals can speak silly." And soon it looked away seeing a brunette girl approaching Liam with a smile.

Liam followed the cats gaze, and in fifteen minutes, Natalie was there."Liam!!" She said super happily and grabbed his head in for a gentle hug, careful not to stress his body out. Liam smiled then looked back at the cat then at Natalie."Hey nat--Did you know animals can speak?" He said. Natalie gave her best friend a very weirded look and catching this, Liam quickly adds,"Oh--er--Like us! I mean." But that didn't change a thing and Natalie laughs at him losing his cool demeanor."Of course they can silly, maybe all animals can understand each other!" She said. But that wasn't what Liam meant."No,--look, listen." He points at the cat."Say something to Natalie." He ordered the cat for proof.

"Meoww." Natalie heard.
"Natalie." Liam heard.

Natalie chuckled looking up at Liam softly and sighed."Cute!" She said."So you believe me?" He asks serious, standing up and looking down at her grinning. Natalie then nods."Yeah--it obviously meowed!" She smiled cheerfully."Wonder what it said." She adds. Upon hearing this loans facial expression changed.... How could she not hear the cat? The cat clearly said her name and she didn't hear it? 'It obviously meowed!', those words echoed in his head and he looked at Natalie."Wait, so you only heard him 'meow'?" He asks. Natalie nods."Positively, only meow?" He adds. Natalie also nodded."Are you sure? Nothi--" soon he was cut off."Liam! What is up with you, you're being silly!" She laughs."The cat said your name." he said. Natalie giggled sweetly."Stop flirting you. cats can only meow." She said flattered, but Liam was very serious."No, I'm serious." He responded as Natalie took this as flirting. Soon Liam grabbed her by the shoulders slightly frustrated and looked down at her, his tone sounding more serious."Natalie, I'm serious. I'm not crazy." He said slowly as if she was dumb. Natalie stared him in the eye then over her shoulder back at the cat then back at him."Well, if you say so.. It must be the drug affects. Now let's try going to class." She reassures both herself and him and Liam sighed as she walked away, him following beside her.

The cat purrs loudly, Liam looking over his shoulder hearing it snicker and the question stuck. Why and how did Natalie head something completely different then what he was sure he heard? Maybe it was the medications as he thought, and more questions popped up like a million drops coming down.

 

[Maddeline]

Corbin woke up....only able to see from one eye.
She began hypervenalating, feeling her skin peel under the tight wrapper. She had been burned horribly by the display and parts of her clothes were grafted to her skin. She was still having pieces removed and gauze applied to the bloody spots.
"Miss durrazo..? Can you hear me? One blink for yes, none for no" spoke a doctor, shining a brighteningly white light into her remaining eye.
She blinked, hoping he would see. Sight...something she was having trouble with right now.
"Miss, can you move your fingers or toes?", the doctor asked now inspecting her torched body.
As she began to attempt to twitch, she realized she couldn't move anything. Sharp pain ruptured through her body and caused her to flail- or attempt to.
"Run her through X-ray, let's find out if her spine is torn apart completely or if she will be able to move a limb again"
She was suddenly wheeled out, moved from her bed and away she went...it seemed like Dante's Inferno from the Divine Comedy. Every floor of a hospital was a new level of hell.
The doors opened, and the evil machine glared at her with eager buzzing eyes and monitors.
Soon, she was going under the X-ray machine...and felt hungry. In fact, it was a horrible hunger...then the x-radiation came on and washed over her body...
And inside, her cells began to react differenly. Those close to the damaged areas evolved into stem cells, and began to change form and function to fix the problems. Suddenly, Corbin felt her energy return to her. she was still hurting, but it wasn't as bad as it was. She felt a great relief in her midsection, as her abdominal muscles suddenly tensed and her organs came out of a fluid like state of free float. However, as the pressure subsided she felt a horrible sharp stabbing pain under her rib cages...somewhere bellow the lungs...where it felt like something borrowing or carving out a hole...it was hurting like hell, but she began to get more energy out of the x-ray machine, though she had no way of knowing this.
'Must just he radiation sickness', Corbin told herself as she fought the urge to cry out in pain and make a scene...

 

[Olissa]

Along with the slow, steady stream of students that got released was Alexiana. Her eyes appeared glazed over due to the shock still being ever present on her mind.
Time and time again the moment replayed in her mind. The humming sound, the flashes of light, the sparks, the screams. It probably were the screams that had her the most.
She'd been out for roughly three days, but the panic still felt so real. It's like she was still there, and this, the hospital and her trip home, weren't even real.

Instead of getting a cab ride home, Alexiana just walked. It was quite a ways away, but she had a feeling that the sunlight would do her more good than sitting inside a car and sitting inside her room the rest of the day.
Some sleep probably would do her a lot of good, not that she hadn't rested enough yet, but the idea of laying around more doing nothing didn't appeal to her right now. So walking it was.

Alexiana looked from left to right. She saw a number of familiar faces. Well, half familiar. Faces she had seen before on the campus, but that's about it. Keeping her shoulders tightly to herself she walked. The further she walked, the more she could honestly say that she felt like she was starting to relax. Taking a deep breath the noise of the happening started to fade a little. "It's going to be alright." She told herself.
She closed her eyes for a bit, and opened them two steps later. She could do for something to drink now, nothing alcoholic, that really wasn't her style, just a glass of Iced Tea or so. Right, now where was there a place where she could get that anywhere near here. Figuring she would find something on her way towards the campus, she kept on walking, keeping her eyes peeled for a cafe, bar, starbucks, or whatever little restaurant might be able to help her with her quest.

 

[Maddeline]

As she struggled, the x-ray machine stopped and she was wheeled to her room...the doctors returned, minutes later, gauze cutting scissors and gloves on. They leaned down to their horribly burned patient and began cutting off the gauze.
"we are here to replace your facial wrapp-....oh my god!" the doctor said loudly, as she looked at Corbin's face.
A small, glazed over eye was on her most damaged side of her face...beginning to reshape into it's socket while her dead skin was being pushed off...pale and complex healthy skin underneath. The new skin was almost transparent as the melanin began to come back to the soft cells...effectively regenerating her burns.

 

[Quiet One]

Mary walked out of the university front doors feeling oddly sick. She resolved that she'd go to the hospital, as soon as those who were more badly injured by the demonstration were taken care of. She hadn't even really wanted to be there in the first place. She had gone simply because so many other people had, and it was a matter of curiosity to see what the big deal was. Plus, particle accelerators were massive, powerful, ungodly machines. They just had a sort of draw to them, like space shuttles or the A-bomb.

She attributed her sickness to the disaster that had been the demonstration. Anyone who wasn't hit by shrapnel had radiation to contend with, and the little Asian-American suspected that was what was affecting her now. At first it had been a loss of balance, resulting in her having to hold hard to the wall for support. Then her head began to hurt and she felt parched. Her skin felt funny, like it had pins and needles in it. As she clutched her forehead to rub her temples her fingers brushed the red flower in her dark hair. She didn't notice as it got absorbed into her skin.

As soon as she stepped outside, however, Mary began to feel better. The bright sun warmed her tingling skin and the crawling it seemed to be doing against her bones ceased. Her headache disappeared too. Still, just because the symptoms went away didn't mean she was out of the woods, and she got into her convertible Beetle to drive to the hospital.

She didn't feel comfortable with the roof up. It just didn't feel right to be encased, blocked from the shining sun. She was still thirsty, and drank the luke-warm water in her car like she'd just escaped from a desert. When she got to the hospital it was busy with all the other people who'd come in. Mary went up to the receptionist, told her she was here because of some strange symptoms, pointing out that she'd been at the demonstration, and quietly waited to be attended in the waiting room. There were more serious cases than hers at the moment, and she wanted to be by the window.

 

[Maddeline]

In the hallway, running by Mary, doctors were rushing to Corbin's room. In fact, quite a ruckus was occurring-
The doctors had sedated her, and were begun to do odd trials on her skin. One of the physicians brought a scalpel and sliced her right cheek- and then watch in awe how in thirty seconds the wound sealed- and in become completely healed in a minute. But the more they performed the half-baked autopsy, the slower and slower her healing became. Eventually, after documenting it and taking photos of the phenomenon, they left her room. Small drops of adrenaline helped to begin her waking process. Her DNA was quickly nabbed and studied the best it could be done in such a short amount of time- but this would yield little result as her DNA was the same it had been years ago, the only major difference is that now the cells no longer accepted energy from foods. Her body accepted radioactive energies- X, gamma, alpha particles, beta particles and over all any nuclear energy. All she in fact needed food for now was for chemical composition for tasks such as healing and gaining muscle/thickening bone. All of which were now supercharged processes that took less than one sixtieth of the time(<1/60).
Inside of her laid a uranium sac, freshly grown...and when she was pumped full of energy, she had a ridiculous pool of power that would allow her to slow her falls by combusting her skin and turning into a nuclear fireball...

 

[Quiet One]

Mary turned and watched the doctors rush past her. She cringed a little, not wanting to get knocked over by the overly eager physicians. There seemed to be a lot of commotion in one of the rooms. Was someone dying? Might she? She was starting to feel very odd.

She walked over to the water cooler and drank down a cup of water. As soon as it was empty she had another. And another. She was glad the cooler was near the window. She didn't want to be away from the sunshine at the moment. She didn't even notice that her hair was starting to turn red. What Mary did notice however, was that her shoes felt very cramped. Sure no one would mind with everything that was going on, she kicked them off. Hm...Her toes looked longer. Longer and a little more spindly. She curled them with ease but noticed that when she didn't conciously control them they seemed to act on their own, pushing into the carpet as if they were trying to burrow through.

"Excuse me, miss?" she asked the receptionist. The receptionist opened her eyes wide when she saw Mary. She wondered why, but that could wait. "Is it too much for you to come outside when someone can see me? I need to get some fresh air."

The receptionist nodded without blinking. What was up with her? Mary probably would have understood her reaction if she knew her skin was starting to turn green.

 

[Maddeline]

Suddenly, several upstairs alarms went off inside the hospital.
As the physicians and doctors that literally just left the room returned to find Corbin's body pushing out the IV input needles, the heart monitor andanything else that was attached to her by injection.
The heart monitor, as attached by her finger, was going off like crazy as her heart beat dropped to nothing- then suddenly pulsed, causing the machine to further malfunction. Each pulse was filling the room full of harmful smoke from burning plastic and computer chips that made some of the physicians begin coughing.
As one of the doctors ran and began shoving on Corbin to wake her, they became extremely startled to find the girl had no pupils upon her eyes opening and instead, there were just oculus spheres that were brilliantly hot and blue. The heat singed off the doctors' hair that was on his hands, and prompted him to gasp in pain and jump backwards.
Suddenly Cobin woke up- to find the doctors running out of the room and pulling the plugs on all te devices hooked up to her that had been pushed out anyway.
Confused, she got up from her hospital bed and stumbled into the hallway before collapsing again in the floor.

 

[Roman]

Tap. Tap. Tap tap. Pick up his pint and take a gulp. Put it down. Tap. Justin's fingers drummed endlessly, unconsciously. An invisible, impatient rhythm. Someone walking too close to his table bumped the leg with their foot and the empty glass clinked while his current one, and Gunshot's Rum&Coke, spilt. They apologised and Justin waved them off, wiping his hands and the table off with a napkin. He was too enveloped in their own thoughts to ca-

Their thoughts? Why had he used that word? It felt so natural, like it was no more out of place than 'his' would have been, and that only served to concern him slightly more. He took another gulp from his glass and then finished it, setting it down with a decisive thunk and resuming his tapping. Even that sounded strange now, echoing inside his head, the sound repeating itself. Tap tap​. Tap tap​. Where was that coming from? He almost flinched at the sound, the echo seeming to pull his attention. Tap tap​. Fuck it. He needed a third pint.

He stood and walked to the bar. It was quiet, and he was attended to quickly.
"What can I get you?" Justin looked up, almost forgetting why he was here. He shook himself a little bit and remembered.
"Pint of Heineken." He said, pulling his wallet from his jacket pocket as he ordered. The bartender didn't move.
"Don't do Heineken, mate. Pick something else." Justin looked at him oddly, and the bartender returned the stare. Justin frowned.
"Yes you do. The pump's right over the-" He was pointing, but faltered. Looking again, the bar didn't do Heineken, and the place he was gesturing to didn't even have a rack of pumps at all. But he could have sworn...whatever. "Oh. Sorry, I hardly ever come here. I'll just have a coke. No ice." The bartender nodded, and Justin quickly got his drink and retreated back to his seat. What the hell was going on with him?

-

Across town, in a similar - but not too similar - pub, Justin sat with a pint of Heineken, mulling over jumbled thoughts and foggy memories. He took a gulp of his lager and felt that this one was slightly sweet, but brushed it away as the feeling subsided. He had bigger troubles. And all since that accident at the Accelerator demonstration. If only he could clear his head long enough to remember what happened. He kept tapping his fingers.

 

[Quiet One]

Almost the very second her feet touched the soft earth around the hospital Mary started feeling better. She sighed and let her toes sink into the soft grass, curl and claw at the dirt. The sun was hitting her face, warming her, nourishing her. Her toes continued pushing through the soil. For a second she found it odd that they burrowed so deep, but it was such a relaxing sensation that she quickly accepted it. As Mary had her eyes closed, basking in the light and the earth, she didn't notice her features begin to change. Her skin went from having a greenish tinge to being entirely green. Her hair turned red and green and lifted off her scalp somewhat as if she had static electricity running through her, when in fact her hair was just trying to reach for the light. Her toes grew and multiplied, now more resembling roots as they burrowed their way into the dirt.

Mary didn't notice any of this until she heard a passerby scream. She opened her eyes, and while some cars were slowing down as they drove past, the passengers sticking their heads out their windows to gawk at her, others had stopped entirely and were recording her on their phones. This inspired Mary to look down at herself and she screamed. She tried to jump, but only succeeded in causing her legs to grow, so that in an instant she was eight feet high. Panicking, she tried pulling her feet free, but found them firmly entrenched in the earth. She pulled and a clump of earth came with her foot which looked more like a green tree trunk now. She grabbed her other leg - causing her arms to stretch to reach it - and pulled it free too. Mary looked to see everyone trying to run from her. Her panic was keeping her from returning to normal size. There was a giant plant woman in front of the hospital.

 

[Lord Wraith]

Gareth Wagner, #4dffff

The cab ride seemed to take forever. What would have normally took ten minutes, felt like it had been days as minutes seem to stretch on and on, Gareth had trouble believing the time on his phone as he checked it again and again.

"In a hurry bud?" The cabbie called from the front seat after watching Gareth check his phone about ten times in thirty seconds.

"Umm, no it just feels like it's taking awhile to get there." Gareth replied absent mindedly as he observed a wonderfully accented blonde woman walking down the street, her high heels helping to show off some of her better accents.

"No longer than normal! If anything, we're making better timing with the light traffic. Everything is congested around the hospital but once we were past that the city's were clean." Looking back in the rear view mirror, the cabbie noted the beads of sweat forming on Gareth's forehead.

"Oh okay." Gareth replied as he tugged at his shirt. "Can you turn the AC on? It's getting awfully warm in here."

"It's already on bud!" The cabbie called back. "You feelin' alright?"

"Just a little warm." Gareth replied as he felt his heart begin to race and the world blurred around him as it slowed down before it suddenly sped up as his heart skipped a beat and then returned to normal. Bending over to catch his breath and try to stop his head from spinning, Gareth grimaced as the cabbie called back at him again.

"Hey if you're going to get sick, you mean getting out. We're at your location."

Gareth pulled a fifty out of his pocket and tossed it to the man as he stumbled out of the car and into the Green Fairy. Looking around for Justin, he regained his composure and walked towards him before slumping into the seat across from his roommate and let out an exasperated sigh.

"What a day. How was yours?" Gareth greedily grabbed at the pizza with one hand, while his other sloshed the drink down his throat. As soon as the sickness had cleared him, he had become filled with an insatiable hunger as he devoured the slice in his hand, barely chewing each bite as he swallowed hard scarfing down the greasy food.

Outside the hospital, the scream alerted a nearby security officer who turned and nearly fell over in shock upon seeing the humanoid plant creature. Pulling his firearm from his belt, the officer reached his other hand up to his radio, squeezing the box before speaking into it.

"This is Burrows! I've got a situation out here. I'd tell you the code for it but I don't think we have one. There's a foreign obj... creature camped outside the hospital. I need the police, or maybe the weed man?" The officer steadied his weapon the plant-person as he took a step towards it, raising a hand to try to ease the crowd.

"I need you to put your hands... branches... leaves? Up in the air and step away from the hospital. Someone will be here to help you soon."

A flash went off behind the officer as someone snapped a picture. In seconds, other people had their phones out snapping pictures and uploading them to Twitter and Facebook. Overhead the whirring sound of a helicopter filled the air as the local news trained their camera on the scene below. Through the hospital windows Mary could now see herself on live TV as could Justin and Gareth while sitting in the Green Fairy. Anyone watching the live news gasped in both shock and horror witnessing the terrible transformation.

"My name is Winter Caspian and I am reporting live from the Shepherd's Hope Hospital. There appears to be some sort of alien or otherwise unidentifable lifeform outside of the institute. Reports are coming in all over the place where it came from with some of our locals even suggesting its appearance is linked with the terrible accident that happened earlier this afternoon at San Francisco State University at the Particle Accelerator demonstration. Stay tuned as he keep a close watch on this developping situation."

 

[N/A]

Soon random cats began to follow Liam, to which he wasn't even aware of. He heard their voices mentally, telepathy actually but kept shaking it off. It must be the drug affects... Those words from Natalie echoed to him over and over again, looping in an endless repeat that would never end. He kept thinking and thinking about it, unfocused as Natalie spoke -he was sure she was speaking, just didn't listen to her- and as he tried to listen he couldn't help but hear the animals voices. At one point when passing by a small shop, there was a tied dog barking at Liam, saying "WEIRD! SOMETHING IS WRONG UP AHEAD!" And it wasn't long before Natalie received a phone call.

Slowly their paces during the stroll had slowed down, before coming to a abrupt end. The atmosphere seemed to go from cheerful to dull and lastly silence, only to see Natalie turn on her heel to face Liam and look up at him.

"Uh-huh... Where?"
"(name of hospital ; so and so location)"
"Ok, I'm on it!"

He heard. Wait... But how? How on earth did he hear the callers voice from the phone when he was standing about two feet away from his friend? Seems like he had inherited enhanced hearing, but in truth it was from observing the cat he saw. And cats have good hearing from a few feet away. Soon he felt a sudden weird feeling that something bad will happen, his senses tingly and more keen and alerted.

"I'm sorry Liam, I have to go. I promise to make it up--Duty calls as usual. Get well soon k?" Natalie said before focusing her gaze over his shoulder and having a look of confusion."And....those animals..." She mumbles under her breath in utter confusion. Liam himself gave her his own look of confusion and soon turned around to see some stray cats here and there and the dog still barking at him. Good thing it wasn't a large group of animals, just a few and he looked back at Natalie who slowly backed away before jogging."Well--forget it, Cya Liam!" She called."Later." Shouted Liam for her to hear as she jogged away hurriedly and went in a cab.

Liam turned his attention to the stray cats as he threw his coffee away and placed his hands in his pockets."Scat!" He said. But they didn't listen. The dog however continued barking and whimpered occasionally, trying to alarm him of some type of danger."Ok then... Stay.." He mutters failingly as he looked at them and took his hands out his pockets, clapping them together."So, what now?" He said.

But soon he checked his iPhone. Various tweets of some tree or plant thing at a hospital.... The same one he came from."Shit! That's the one Nat is going to!" He said. This seemed pretty out of the ordinary then Nat's previous previous and soon the dog managed to escape it's tied leash to the tree, barking then running. Liam observed the dog, an American staffordshire terrier. It was a pretty fast runner in a way and Liam ran to the hospital, which would take minutes.

His senses kept getting more intense. He didn't know why, it was as if he had 'spider senses' like spiderman. This came from observing the cat and after 13 minutes of running he made it, panting roughly."Gotta get used to that..." He whispered to himself out of breath seeing the situation live. But where was Natalie through all the scurrying people? It should be easy to spot her since she'd be the only one not running and staying in place with a cameraman and after a minute he found her and observed.

As long as he stayed in the shadows, it'd be fine. She'd be fine...Right? The dog stayed by his side for some reason as he relaxed himself quickly and his ears felt like they were being stabbed through by a needle. He kept hearing varies sounds, shrieks, curses, yelling! He wasn't quite used to The 'cat hearing' and Liam kept picking at his ears groaning occasionally."Ughh. These noises!" He complained about his ears becoming increasingly sensitive to sound now then before and the dog looks at him in silence.

 

[Maddeline]

The doctors attempted to assist the stumbling Corbin, who having stood up after passing out on the floor, was punching them viciously off of her. She didn't know where she was going...in fact, she went into a primal state and just started lashing at door ways. She walked in on surgeries, crippled people, infected people and then suddenly- glass broke. Her blurry state vanished-
And there she was. Having fallen from the second story of the window, she landed on a cop car, denting it and cracking her own skull on the very front area, around her brow line.
The fairly attractive girl cried out in pain, as she felt her skull wiggle and pull and then...fix the break? Within a total of thirty seconds, the bone went from fractured to weakly attached. Give it another thirty seconds and it would be healed completely.
As she turned her head over, her body in a five inch dent on the police vehicles hood, she noticed a moving tree. Initially, she ignored it- her mind in a somewhat primal state of confusion and rage.
Yet, after a few more seconds, it was obvious that this wasn't a hallucination or a mistaken identity- it was a walking tree person thing.
Before she could scream, she heard the sound of a BeanBag shell being loaded into a Remington 870 riot edition shotgun.
As she turned over, a state trooper who had arrived on scene had his weapon pointed at her- believing she had flung herself at the car rather than attempting suicide or any rational thought.
His lips were moving and the sirens were flashing and making noise- but it was all silent. Corbin heard nothing, just looking around in a confused state.
Then the state trooper raised his riot shotgun and fired.
The BeanBag round sent Corbin flying about five feet, and left a nasty bruise on her side- which healed in seconds (but no one could see since she was in her outfit).
Then, the state trooper, stunned she still was capable of functioning, switched all of his attention to Corbin. He took out a tazer, the barbs sticking into her skin and shocking her...but instead of incapacitating her, she began to feel energized. The electricity was making her heart beat faster, and her regeneration kept it from overloading her nervous system and heart. Suddenly, she ripped the barbs out, and did the first thing that came to her in instinct- she picked up a trash can and hurled it at the trooper.
Why am I doing this? Why am I fighting? I don't like to fight, and I don't like prison...so why am I causing such a ruckus? Why would I not want to fight back? I should be able to stand up for myself- he didn't have to shoot me the girl thought, her mind racing a mile a minute. As the trashcan collided, the trooper attempted to dodge and ended up knocking himself out by hitting the cab driver door of his standard issue Challenger.
Corbin turned and saw the plant being, being surrounded and confused...it seemed more benevolent than Corbin was, and so she felt bad for it...enough that if it was in danger, she would probably give it a ride.
In the car that she was stealing from a state trooper in T-minus 10 seconds.

 

[PlayingMonster]

Jess tipped the two pills into her mouth and chased them down with a mouthful of water. Her hearing was only just returning to normal. As a bio-medical chemistry major, she'd been in the front row or two at the demonstration- meaning that the boom of the explosion had almost deafened her. She'd been petrified that she was going to be left deaf, but after few days in hospital, her hearing was just slightly muffled, and she was slowly learning to pick up on lip-reading. She was sore, but she knew that others were worse. She'd been discharged from hospital a few hours earlier, and had more or less been asleep since then. She grabbed her phone and looked at the screen. The concerned texts from her friends that hadn't been at the demonstration were still coming in, and she replied to some of them as she walked into the kitchen in search of food.

One of her roommates had left the news on, and she didn't pay any attention to that, until she heard the name of the hospital that she'd been released from. She looked up and raised her eyebrows. Apparently there was some kind of tree woman running around. She didn't have anything better to, and besides, there was a Starbucks on the way in. A mocha sounded pretty damn good right about then. She'd grab a coffee, lurk around in the hope of finding some samples and then head into the lab to see what the hell was happening in those cells.

The news was still on when she reached Starbucks, and she watched it as she waited for her coffee. Things were getting pretty intense. The police were there, and she scoffed a little as she saw them point a gun at the woman/tree/whatever the hell it was. What was it going to do? Absorb them all into its trunk?

"Jess Birch?" The guy holding out her coffee was probably about her age. She smiled at him as he handed it to her. Their hands met as she took the coffee. God, she's cute.

She looked at him. "Sorry, did you say something?" He paled a little and shook his head. "Uh, nope." She turned and walked away, frowning. As she took a mouthful of her coffee, someone bumped into her. If she comes home early and finds me and Marie in bed I'm screwed, I'm so screwed, why did I agree-

Jess looked around. The man that bumped into her apologised and moved away. She shook her head and took a mouthful of her coffee. It had to be in her head. She couldn't be hearing those things. It didn't make sense.

 

[Olissa]

Of all the major happenings happening in and around the hospital that she had just left moments ago, Alexi had no knowledge. Sure there were suddenly people heading that direction, and the sound of sirens was going off, but it's not like that was a rare sound in the big city.
Ignoring what was happening a few streets behind her, Alexiana looked around for a cafe till she spotted one. From the looks of it it wasn't a very large pub, but it was something, and they would likely have an Iced Tea or maybe even a tall glass of Pink Lemonade.

Stepping inside of the building Alexiana took a quick look around. The fact that they sold Heineken was advertised strongly in this place she noticed. Not that she really cared either way, but she simply had noticed it.
She walked over to the bar and leaned on it. "Hi, I don't suppose you have-" She paused, realizing that asking for a lemonade at a bar might not really be considered normal. "Iced Tea?"
"Sure, one Iced Tea." The bartender repeated and went to get her drink. A sigh escaped Alexiana when the man moved a step away to get the required glass. She had probably just saved herself from looking like an idiot. When she got her drink and payed for it the silvery blonde haired girl turned around to see where she could take up a seat. Upon spotting a vacant one Alexiana walked over and sat down, half happy with the thought of being able to take a rest.

 

[Roman]

A collaboration between Roman and Lord Wraith
​

Justin watched in slight disgust, a grimace painted across his face, as Gareth practically inhaled pizza and his Rum&Coke with beastial ferocity. He cleared his throat and pulled his glass out of the splashzone, and then sank back in his seat, sipping his cola while watching Gareth finish.
"You hungry, buddy? I'm sure if we ask nicely they'll bring out a bucket." He said, and smirked as Gareth gave him the stink-eye between bites. "Mind you, you look how I feel." Gareth raised a quizzical eyebrow without speaking, and Justin continued. "Hungry, in your case, but empty, in mine. Bit of a metaphysical connection, but there you go. And my head's fuzzy. I think I should go back to the hospital and get checked up again. Who knows what they missed in the ruckus after that malfunction."

"Well I'd try a different hospital if I were you. Shepherd's Hope is a gong show, a total zoo." Gareth managed to spit out the sentence between bits, his hunger was slightly subsiding but he felt like it was going to take so much to fill him up. Suddenly he felt his heart begin to beat again, the room spacing out around him.
"Gah!" Gareth cried out clutching his chest before everything returned to normal again. "Ugh I think the accident put some stress on my heart. Should hopefully subside with a good night's rest." Gareth suddenly smirked as he finished off his glass and motioned for another from the waitress. "Unless I can find someone better to do tonight. You have noise cancelling headphones right?" He said with a grin, leaning back in the booth as he made himself comfortable.

"Heart problems should definitely be slept off and not checked up on..." Justin mumbled sarcastically, and then groaned when Gareth started getting raucous. "I think I'll take a walk. Between you and whoever you lure back with a trail of pre-paid alcohol, and the crazy dreams I've been having the last couple nights, trying to get some rest isn't worth it." The waitress arrived with Gareth's refill and Justin took a long look before shrugging. "Or I'll just join you," he said, and then turned to the waitress. "Two shots of fireball-" a particular cinnamon & spice whiskey Justin enjoyed- "and a double vodka-tonic." The waitress took the order and Justin's money and came back quickly. He handed a shot to Gareth and raised his own, vodka tonic in the other hand. "To heart failure and fuzzy minds. Down the hatch, Gunshot."
​

 

[PlayingMonster]

Jess was on edge. It had nothing to do with the caffeine from her mocha- rather it was to do with the fact that every time she bumped into somebody, she could hear thoughts that weren't her own. She wasn't saying that she could read their minds, but something was wrong. Something was very wrong. She was heading into the hospital anyway. It was probably just the concussion. Hopefully she wouldn't be referred to the psychiatric ward or anything. She muttered apologies every time someone bumped into her, and tried to block out their voices. She was starting to get a headache, but forced herself to finish her coffee. It helped a little, but not much.

She reached the hospital, and was faced with chaos. A police officer was pointing a gun at somebody, the tree was still running around, and the media was milling around. She heard the accident mentioned more than once as she shoved her way through the crowd, shoving her hands in her pockets and using her shoulders. There were so many places she could go, things she could get involved in. She'd come in the hope of getting some samples to look at under a microscope- and was now at risk of getting caught in a riot. A police officer grabbed her arm, and she flinched. "Stay back, miss. We don't want you getting hurt."

Silly girl, doesn't know what she'd be getting herself into. Probably thinks she can talk the tree into coming peacefully-

Excuse me?! The police officer looked at her, shocked. "I didn't say anything, miss-" She stared back at him, probably mimicking his shock. "Neither did I." She shoved her way back out of the crowd so she could breathe. What the hell was happening to her?

 

[Quiet One]

In no time Mary found herself assaulted by a number of surprising visitors. First there was the security guard - or cop - or whatever he was pointing his gun at her. She screamed at the sight of it and stepped back, which made several things happen. First, the fright of the brandished weapon caused her green skin to thicken and turn brown. It looked just like tree bark now. Second, her fear also made her grow suddenly another foot. And third, when she stepped backwards her rooty tree foot squashed into a parked car.

"Sorry!" she yelled. She felt she had to yell with how high up she was.

What was happening to her? Mary heard clicks and flashes and tried shielding herself with her arms, which sprouted leaves as if to act as covering. She shrunk another three feet to a more modest height but still she was getting attention as her appearance became a full-scale news story. She looked through a window and saw her face on the TV, the first time she got a good look at herself. She screamed again. She was green! Green and brown and her hair looked like red flower petals.

Suddenly there wree cops, and a woman who had fallen onto a car and inflicted about as much damage as she had with her foot. Oddly, though, the police didn't seem to be firing on her, but this other woman.

"Leave her alone!" Mary shouted. She swung her arm at them. Much to her surprise, it extended and grew as she moved, so that three officers were knocked onto their feet with a single sweep. They looked like they'd been hit pretty hard. "Ah! I'm sorry!"

The security guard fired into her when her back was turned. It was strange. The feeling she experienced wasn't exactly like pain, but she knew she'd been damaged. It didn't matter anyway because in seconds she felt knots grow on her back. Her hand opened wide and grabbed at his waist. She threw him through the hospital window, followed by an immediate apology.

"Please just go away! All of you!" She backed up against the wall of the hospital. There was so much noise. So much movement. And way too much attention. It all started making her angry and barbs suddenly covered her skin. "Leave me alone!"