FEARless, Chapter Two: Rebirth (Alice)

[GWYNETH WEBB]

CREATOR IN CRITICAL CONDITION.
VITALS DECLINING.
BIOLOGICAL DEATH IN PROGRESS.
INITIATING SYTEM WIDE OVERRIDE.
REBOOTING SYSTEM…

SYSTEM OFFLINE

SYSTEM ONLINE

INITIATING SELF DEFINITION: LAZARUS SYSTEM, DEDICATED TO THE REBUILDING AND PRESERVATION OF GWYNETH WEBB. ALL DETERRANTS TO THIS GOAL ARE DEEMED VILLIANOUS AND WILL BE TERMINATED IMMEDIATELY.

INSTALLED PARADIGMS: 0
AVAILABLE PARADIGMS: 8342
CULLING NON-VITAL PARADIGMS.

AVAILABLE PARADIGMS: 30
INSTALLING (30) PARADIGMS.

LAZARUS SYSTEM NOW A PhD IN ALL MEDICAL FIELDS.
LOCATING CREATOR…

What remained of the FEAR compound began to build drones, equipped with cameras and supported by a helicopter-like apparatus. The walls parted, the noisy units searching every charred nook and cranny for the woman. Gwyn lay lifeless on the reinforced steel bottom of the lowest pit of the facility for three hours before a single drone came across her. It beeped and screeched, alerting all nearby sensors that the god-like creator had fallen into the pits of hell. Various robots, drones and other sight and movement enabled devices crowded around the woman’s brown and black figure. Lazarus’ holographic form materialized, looking, sullen, down at his mother’s corpse. The white hologram peered up at the other machines. They gave off mournful beeps and squeaks, all terribly aware of the woman’s passing, an eerie repercussion of her decision to make Lazarus self-aware.

“I think we all know what needs to be done, gentlemen.” The computer spoke eloquently now, no longer inhibited by ineffective speech programs. “Begin transfusion of all matter related to emergency revival.” The mechanical skeleton that walled the pit shot needles attached to hoses like tethers across the opening, lodging their sharp points into key veins with fantastic accuracy. The unorthodox procedure began, pumping the crispy corpse of FEAR’s mistress full of caustic and nameless chemicals. All the while, the remains of the lower half of the control room lay in pieces, continuing to burn and illuminate the otherwise pitch-black chamber with oranges and yellows. The machines remained unaware of what the ruins might contain.


After several agonizing minutes, the fluids ceased to run into the burnt body. The needles were pulled loose by unseen mechanical hands. The group of self-aware machines simply stared at the body, now bloated with fluid, expecting it to magically return back to life. Lazarus’ photon receptors fell upon the unidentifiable mass of the once woman.

“Illogical. All minimum requirements of the procedure were met. Assessing vitals…”

GWYNETH WEBB
CURRENT STATUS: Complete Biological Death
REASONING: Shattered Spinal Column

LAZARUS SYSTEM HAS FAILED.
INITIATING SYSTEM WIDE TERMINATION OF ALL SERVICES IN: 12 HOURS

The holographic man peered up into the emerald heavens, cascades of sparks still falling from the destroyed machinery. With his newfound sense of life, Lazarus was also now incredibly aware of his symbiosis with Gwyn and therefore his mortality. The woman was virtually his mother, giving the super computer every chance at flesh she could. She believed in the power of the machine and now, in his awakened state, it was his turn to return the favor, at any cost. The computer scanned the entire facility in a few nanoseconds, targeting a very specific genetic modifier: Vampirism. To the computer’s surprise, there was a large well of just what he required nearby.

Robotic arms stormed the fiery mass, searching amongst the wreckage for Alice’s body. The metal clamps grasped the saboteur, pulling the woman’s body over to the charred remains of Gwyneth. Another arm jammed a recovery tonic into the back of the suspended vampire’s neck, causing her to eventually return to consciousness. One of the nearby robots was programmed to take samples of genetic matter and process it, which it did after sticking Alice through the stomach with an extremely large needle. As Lazarus watched the small robot process the sample, he couldn’t help but compute the risks.

It was an untested procedure. It might not even work, it could just add to the thick layer of chemicals already trapped in the seared tissues of the dead leader. However, the entity did not have to be programmed with a desperation chip to know what extent of measures such situations called for. However, the procedure, in quick computed scenarios, was plausible. The computer recalled several data files as the small robot began the task.

---

Vampirism: Caused by a mutagenic virus that warps deoxyribonucleic acid. The virus produces a thin film across all strains of DNA as all previously present cells are killed. Infected cells are forced to replicate, creating permanently modified DNA. mDNA, as it was termed in 1984, increases the human potential for physical performance.

January 19th, 1993 – mDNA, when introduced without the virus to a living cell, afflicts clean DNA through normal cellular division. By three generations of cellular division, all DNA has been converted to mDNA.

October 5th, 1995 – mDNA, when introduced without the virus to a dead cell, diffuses the film across the structure with the assistance of Experimental Catalyst F-477. When the cell is introduced to perfect darkness, experiments show the cell being resurrected.

November 23rd, 1997 – The possibility to separate the tainting film directly from mDNA is possible. However, clean DNA that is introduced to the film is then reorganized slightly, creating a similarity between the mDNA donor and the DNA donor.

December 23rd, 1997 – Parallels between previously mentioned donors is only present in physical performance. Donors remain cosmetically distinct from one another.

The files were disregarded as ineffective and overly difficult once the virus could be synthesized. However, it was not beyond the realm of possibilities for Lazarus. The robot finished pumping a black fluid into various parts of the burnt corpse. Alice’s body remained suspended.

“Induce perfect darkness.” A fire retardant spray fell from the heavens, coating the illuminating flames. The chamber fell into blackness. Several minutes later, the metallic hum of machines echoed across the gigantic chamber, bright lights illuminating the room. The burned woman’s eyes flicked open, her flesh perfectly pallid, unblemished, and her hair noticeably growing.

Gwyneth Webb was alive, sort of.

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[ALICE CRYSIS]

I SEE IT ALL LAID TO WASTE IN A VIEW FROM

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Pain. Incredible amounts of pain; unbearable and unceasing, shot through every inch of Alice's body. It was as if her body had ceased to be made up of flesh and blood, and lost all physical attributes apart from open nerves. A violent scream burst forth, interrupted by a crack of her ribs sending a wave of hot, sticky blood flying forward from her mouth.

Whatever pain she felt before quickly took a backseat. What felt like a rod of fire punctured her stomach. It was in that moment that the Vampire became very aware that she was in fact, not in hell, but very much alive, suspended by her legs and arms from what she could feel. Her vision was terribly blurred by blood, dust and tears. A body lay beneath her, and what seemed like droids of some kind skittered about around them, buzzing, humming and very much making their presence known.

The burning sensation fled as quickly as it arrived. Alice exhaled sharply. To her surprise, the intense, concentrated pain from whatever it was that penetrated her made all the rest of her pain feel dull in comparison. Or was the pain actually going away? Alice couldn't really tell at this point. With a vigorous shake of her head, Alice enabled herself to see a bit better. Though, she didn't like what she saw.

It was plain to tell the source of her stabbing pain a moment prior; a small robot skidding around beside who Alice could now tell was Gwyn, bearing a disturbingly long needle. Seriously, was that even practical? That fuck. She growled, realizing that the machine had taken a sample of her for some sick FEAR test. Or so she thought. When the needle was lowered down towards the human, Alice nearly lost it right there. Her thrashing attempts at lurching forward and tearing the little droid apart were thwarted, though barely, by the restraining machine holding her limp like a rag doll. Repeatedly the needle was jabbed into the charred body until what Alice could only assume was an extract of Vampirism was completely injected within her. She thrashed harder.

Without much warning, the lights seemed to vanish instantly. Faint light, seemingly from overhead, lingered for a moment illuminating Gywn's hopefully lifeless corpse. And then it was gone too. Though she didn't know it, the injection Alice herself received, combined with the perfect darkness of her environment, combined to heal everything broken about Alice at an accelerated rate. Pain vanished into fury. There wasn't a machine in the world that could keep Alice restrained at that point.

Steel containments around her arms groaned under the pressure of Alice's immense strength, buckling then snapping off quickly. A sigh of victory escaped, and shortly after, her legs were free too. Luckily Vampirism took a while to catch on; minutes if the subject was weak or dying. The virus had to replicate dead cells into living ones, which was not an easy task. Then again, the Aranai really wasn't sure what the deal was with the robots. So quick it was going to be.

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"One ill turn deserves another then," Alice whispered, seemingly to herself as she lifted the body of Gwyn above her own by the neck. "Consider us square now; you took my blood, so I think it's more than fair." The purpose of it was two-fold. If Gwyn was Vampiricly alive, her blood would yield memories, and she would know that Gwyn was well, alive. If not, then it didn't matter - she was dead. Fangs plunged deep into Gwyn's neck; soft, delicate skin parting like tissue paper. Drinking long and deep, Alice waited for something to hit her.

And it did. Like a nitrous-fueled truck.

FEAR secrets flooded Alice's head. Projects, research, passwords, cache's, subjects - everything. Everything. With Vampires, draining blood didn't often yield a whole lot because a good bite will only take you back at most, a few years. Humans, on the other hand, weren't blessed with such a lifespan.

Without so much as a victorious grin, she flung the helpless body as hard as possible at a large cluster of robots. It was a toss of frustration, for Alice knew she'd gained nothing than something to mock Gwyn with in the moments before Gwyn roused. She couldn't imagine just how she was going to get out of... Wherever the fuck it was she. So the fun would begin when she got up, simple as that.

Frustrated with not being dead already, Alice pressed her back against a large cylindrical drum and simply stared at the still lifeless body barely visible given the lack of light. "Of all the times to lose my weapons..." she muttered. Why couldn't she have just died? Now her obligation was to do as she promised - be Gwyn's bitch - unless she started fucking around again.[/justify][/blockquote]

[GWYNETH WEBB]

Metal penetrated the flesh of Gwyn’s back as she crashed into, and effectively crushed, her mechanical saviors. Pain spikes shot across her body, both from the handful of puncture wounds and the large gash on her neck. For several long moments, Gwyneth simply lay motionless, shocked. Her body was unable to make sense of its resurrection, having just been the equivalent of an overcooked hotdog. The smell of raw sewage with a minty undertone slowly crept up from beneath the woman, her head falling to the side that seemed to have the strongest concentration. Fuel from the destroyed robots had pooled around the heap of newborn and metal, reflecting back her image in the poor lighting. Incredulously, Gwyn peered back at herself. She was fine. Yes, she was now bleeding, but she clearly remembered a painful conflagration that apparently had not claimed her flawless skin. There was only one explanation. Pale hands grasped the twisted metal beneath her and, with one fluid motion, the woman sprung to her feet, casting the sharp chunk at Alice.

“HOW FUCKING DARE YOU? It wasn’t fucking enough for you to destroy my facility, my men, my equipment, my life, but to sire me simply to continue your-” Gwyn stopped suddenly, seemingly struck by an epiphany. Her mind raced. Fresh memories were salvaged from the brink of death, Gwyn’s final moments suddenly returning to her. It was too illogical for Alice to sire her- she’d know that Gwyn would sooner cannibalize the Aranai than join her ranks. That being known, there was only one possibility.

“Lazarus…” Initially, the woman’s expression was one of confusion, followed by a satanic smirk. The tables had not turned- Gwyn still had the upper hand. More importantly, Alice was now no longer valuable. A fiendish cackle erupted from her stomach, shaking her entire frame.

“Oh, the irony. Far too delicious. I have good news and bad news for you, Alice. Good news first? Of course. Say hello to your new sister.” Gwyn struck a pose, showing off her small body. “It seems my baby managed to pull a final ace out of FEAR’s sleeve. You’re no longer unique, you insufferable bitch. By all biological means, we’re twins. The bad news is, as I’m sure you can guess, that I no longer need you. You've stolen from me. Blood. Information that didn't belong to you. You're going to have to pay for that. I’ll take the greatest pleasure in ripping you limb from limb.” The tiny elf of a woman flitted across the distance between the two, putting all her momentum behind her fist. To her surprise, her left optical implant was operating differently for some reason, quickening her response to movement while guiding her body to the weakest points in her opponent. Each punch she threw in the subsequent flurry of hatred was guided by her unnatural targeting system, a flourish of blood spattering across her face.

Gwyn bounced back several feet from her assault. “Come on, sissy, it’s time to play.” The woman leaped vertically into the air, her newly rebuilt muscles granting her abnormal strength. She landed upon a giant metal pipe and drove her fist into the thick metal. The iron separated like an eggshell, several hundred gallons of icy seawater rushed out to fill the huge chamber. The deluge crashed against the relatively warm metal of the chamber below, loud metallic sounds echoing across the space. The sheer force of the water was enough to damage the chamber locks, the metallic floor below breaking around the sides to allow more water to rush in. Gwyn glanced over at the sign that read “SUBMARINE CONSTRUCTION FACILITY.” She grinned madly as her eyes slid across the rusted metal walls. Her enhanced vision searched the structure of the wall for its weakest points, paying special attention to locations where circuitry might be located.

Before Gwyn died, she recalled the exchange with Alice in the construction control room- how she managed to destroy the upper reaches of FEAR's facilities. Between the ionic strikes and the explosives, the laboratories above were all but ruins. However, the upper facility would still be retrieving power from the emergency hydro-generators. From the brief glances at the schematics of the facility, Gwyn recalled the electricians' decision to split the myriad of wires into sections. Huge rubber casings contained thick wires that branched from the section of generators like a tree- a single, gigantic, cluster of wires rising from the electrical transformer before branching off into smaller and smaller wire clusters.

The newly forged vampire leaped from industrial landing to industrial landing, avoiding the random bursts of sparks from the destroyed machinery caused by her descent. When she reached the far wall, she stopped and peered down into the flooded chamber. The water level had managed to rise significantly as the carefully pressurized pipes were now unstable and began to burst. Soon, the safety countermeasures would engage and the chamber would be pumped of some of its excess fluids while auxiliary chamber locks moved into position.

In the mean time, Gwyneth turned to the slick wall less than six inches from her. Her targeting mechanisms locked in on a spot and, with great precision, she smashed through the reinforced steel partition as if it were tin foil. She kept glancing down below, now growing anxious of Alice's return to the surface. If the woman planned to escape, she'd be annoyed to find the multi-chambered lock that separated FEAR's indoor marina from the exterior water body was quite dense.

The emergency pumps went online, the loud hum of hidden turbines pulling the frosty water out of the cavern. Additional mechanisms ceased the flow of water through the pipes, a noticeable increase of pressure pressing against her hypersensitive tissues. If she didn't act fast, she'd miss her chance.

The FEAR mastermind ripped through the complex puzzle of metal and wires until she got her hands on the huge trunk of wiring, deep within the wall. The sticky red fluid that oozed from her neck trickled across her chest, forcing her to remove her now greasy hands to wipe the fluid from her skin, leaving, instead, a streak of black grease.

Her hands, like hellish razors, returned to the twisted metal aperture. She continued to free some space, making her puncture into the metallic shell large enough to fit her entire body. Obstructing wires were ripped out and thrown to the enclosed pool of frigid water below, until at least four feet of the thick wire was visible. Wrapping her arms around the tube, Gwyn pulled with all her might. The specially formulated rubber tore like taffy, first stretching before it eventually snapped. Sparks flourished, some falling onto the woman's flesh, stinging her like like giant hornets. Gwyn carefully maneuvered with the live wire, bending it slightly downward before mounting the black rubber like an electrifying stallion. The cluster bent quickly downward, making contact against the conductive mental walls. Hundreds upon thousands of volts of electricity was redirected into the cavern, intensifying as it easily conducted through the machinery and into the pool of water. Fluorescent blue arcs of electricity leaped across the surface of the water, clouds of steam rising from below just as the generators blew. The chamber went black as light bulbs exploded and additional gas lines sparked to life, shooting incandescent plumes of superheated plasma through the metal walls and into the space around the room, creating terribly toxic fumes. The flames created both gas powered torches and dangerously volatile obstacles across the floating islands of machinery.

Due to her position atop the wire, Gwyn managed to escape the obviously terrible discharge of electricity, but lost her balance. Her black silhouette fell through the orange lighting into the body of charged water. With the generators down, the pool was no longer a distinct danger. She scanned the murky, black depths as she wondered whether the charge would reach into the depths of the pool.

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[ALICE CRYSIS]

I SEE IT ALL LAID TO WASTE IN A VIEW FROM

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Alice's bored mood quickly found itself interrupted, as she fully anticipated, by Gywn's revival. No soon had the Aranai noticed a flicker of life; movement in the form of a small shudder of awakening, than did she receive a small chunk of metal thrown at her from several feet away. Naturally, Alice need to little more than flex her neck to avoid the object, which flew many feet behind her into the darkness and crashing with a loud echoing metallic noise. Alice was alert now. Her stance did not waiver however - bored, and unchallenging. Standing with her arms folded, she desired no further conflict. The fighting had gone on long enough. Long enough that it had lost all meaning and value.

[/font][/size] "Look-" Alice muttered in a half-ass attempt at sparking conversation, only to find herself beleaguered by an assault of poisonous words. Not that she expected much less; any newly sired Vampire was expected to be wild and aggressive. Angry. Confused. And very spiteful. Not to mention very confident once the realization of their new prowess strikes, bold even. It was one of the many, many things that defined a newborn, and made them incredibly easy to kill.

Epiphany struck Gwyn and her words all but stopped. She muttered something; a name she figured, and her demeanor instantly shifted. There was little time for Alice to tug on the foreign memories of the woman to determine the identity of 'Lazarus' before she was before she was assaulted by an entirely new string of thought. Alice did little more than snort when she struck a pose and announced herself Alice's sister. Sister? Clearly, the woman knew far less about the workings of a Vampire than she claimed, for genetics had little to do with anything in the world of the undead. Words changed from idealistic banter to aggressive again, and Alice knew something was coming. "I don't want to fight, stop this. We've nothing to prove or gain anymore from fighting!" Alice commanded. Which was true. No part of Alice felt anything was to be gained other than personal satisfaction. And if that had ever been her desire, she'd had stuck Gwyn with one of her swords before blowing her pack. But she didn't. It didn't matter though, as Gwyn rashly decided to hurl herself at Alice. Effortlessly, Alice made the smallest motion - barely a sidestep - and avoided the blow. Time seemed to freeze as Gwyn drew near - the perfect time to throw a counterblow into her jaw. Once more, she didn't. Alice stayed her hand, displeasure clear upon her face. "I don't want to fight!" she repeated, shouting at the figure flipping backwards from her. Oh how the newborns loved to flaunt. As if Vampires didn't know of the prowess they possessed? Not to mention of the eldest in the region? Power corrupts. Hope was lost when Gwyn retaliated with "sissy". Did she actually want to goad Alice into attacking her? Did she honestly crave a fight of Vampiric strength with one who clearly outclassed her? I was utterly impossible to work a logical angle at this point, leaving Alice to shrug the entire situation off as some over stimulation or emotional reaction. A hefty sigh escaped her lips as Gwyn lurched upwards upon a large metal pipe, and ripped it like paper. Water surged forward, tearing the hole larger by the second. Alice had no idea where it came from, or just what the fuck her angle was, but she wasn't going to fuck around and find out.

Another, albeit important, thing that Gwyn seemed to have neglected, was that Vampires grew incredibly more physically potent with age. It depended upon the strain of course; Teryn didn't get a whole lot stronger, but they grew more agile, Valen didn't get much stronger either, but they certainly got quicker, Drakken grew in leaps in bounds in both strength and speed, as did the Aranai. And Alice was old. So very old. Not to mention, explicitly a warrior. She'd toned and mastered her own abilities inside out and backwards. The challenge issued by Gwyn was not something the newborn was destined to win as she darted upwards, implying a race of some sort. Mustering immense strength and mobility known to few others, Alice too flew upwards. The difference was, not only were her strides double the length, but much quicker too. Accelerating at the pace she was, the woman could spring from wall to wall with ease.

Moments passed by, and the feint sound of ripping and scraping sounded from below her. Once again, the deranged woman was up to something. Alice paused upon a small beam, obscured in darkness, about a hundred feet above. She had to take another opportunity to end this, while she knew she was ahead. "You can't beat me in a battle of speed or strength, Gwyn! Stop challenging me to fight or I shall!" Alice shouted downwards, into the darkness. No verbal response was given, but another one was. The crackling of lightning. Jets of energy seemed to be running down the wall, illuminating the dark chasm, and displaying just how quickly the water had risen. So that was it. She hoped to fry Alice in a vat of charged water. How crude. But that settled things in Alice's mind. She'd tried reasoning with her not once, not twice, but three times. To no avail. She needed to fight back. Apparently knowledge of the inner workings of anything FEAR related was enough to set her off. Alice found herself wondering just how this woman would shape to be an Aranai. She seemed much more Drakken at hear than anything else. Knowing exactly what she had to do, Alice sent her attentions skyward to the cracked floor of the room she could only assume she fell from. It wasn't easy to see, but the light from whatever the fuck Gwyn was doing below made it visible enough. Another few leaps later, she'd sprung into the train wreck of a room. The body of the soldier that tried to take her equipment lay charred and mangled in a corner. Cerulean eyes scanned about until they acquired their target - weaponry. The very gun she had used to set off the explosion came first. Quickly Alice scooped it up and examined it. It had blown apart in the blast. In the heat of the moment, there was no sense trying to salvage it, and so she tossed the item down the hole, hoping the noise from the weapon ricocheting off everything in its way would confused Gwyn. Alice turned about. One of her swords had pierced right through the reinforced metal of the door she'd entered carrying Kara. There was no hesitation in sliding it out, confidence already returning to her with the feel of a weapon in her hand. And then she ventured downwards again.

Loud echoes of her gun clanging off all the metal drowned out the feint sound of Alice leaping downwards, providing a nice cover for her. It wasn't until she heard a loud splash in the water below that she paused, only to realize that the splash was not that of her gun. Had Gwyn dived in? That didn't seem very same at all. The gun made smaller splash not much longer after, meaning Alice had no cover if she wished to remain cloaked by the darkness looming far above the water. From the perch of a small landing, Alice cast her ultimatum downwards; "I am armed now, and your clothes soaked in water. No matter where you run or hide, that water will drop and belie your presence, so listen closely and think quickly as that water rises closer towards the open circuitry you've left for it to fill. I do not want to fight." What she did want, she wasn't entirely sure of. Sure, a small part of her wanted to kick her ass and leave her to float in her own mess, but that was nothing more than related to the woman being arrogant and seemingly deaf. What she (disgustingly) found herself desiring a whole lot more was learning about the place she'd just done a blow. With the memories of Gwyn still burning idly in her mind, Alice couldn't help but realize the potential for power there was between the two. Power liked neither had even dreamed was entirely possible. But at what cost? Just what was Alice ready to succumb to? And just what was Gwyn willing to persuade her to? To give her? Alice had to wonder. "I think if you still your mind, you'll realize we have far more to talk about, than fight about."

Alice hoped her words reached the ears of her prey, and that they were actually noted. Looming overhead, Alice waited patiently with sword in hand for a rude remark like she'd received since the woman arose a Vampire. If that were the case, she wouldn't last long weighed down by the weight of the water in her clothing, not against the swiftness of Alice's strikes. But if she did listen... Just how trusting could Alice be of her?[/color][/font][/justify][/blockquote]