[3] Group 2 - Military Base

[Burter]

9. Cell
11. Bojack
12. Trunks
16. Bra

Up to you what you want to do. You've pretty much made this base your bitch, so you know this place. You could hang out here, or you can go somewhere else.

[Bra]

The younger hybrid thumbed through a set of schematics laid out upon a steel table, unable to decipher what exactly the plans were for. Despite her failure to comprehend the blueprints, she continued reading through them, in hopes of catching something that stood out. She refused to dismiss the possibility of a clue within the almost cryptic plans. As she pored over the parchment, her brother interrupted the girl, immediately causing her to brace herself mentally for his next action.

?Hey, sis!? he called, rushing toward her with a broad grin on his face. A phosphorescent blue liquid churned within the beaker he held as he carelessly dashed closer to Bra, who had since looked up from her papers.

?Yeah?? she replied, glancing down at the luminescent azure concoction in Trunks? hand. Disconcertingly, the lavender haired teen?s smile had not left his visage, which prompted the heiress to ask about the fluid, but she was never given the chance.

?Check this out.? he announced, tossing the liquid back like an oversized shot of whiskey, consuming the oversized beaker?s entire contents with but one gulp. Bra panicked; what the hell had her brother drank?

?Are... are you okay!?? she demanded, her eyes wide in fear. She didn?t move, knowing that even if she had, there was nothing she could have done at this point.

?Yeah, I am totally fi- ugh...?Trunks groaned in pain, squeezing his arms around his stomach as he doubled over. The princess gasped, but paused as her brother began to shake slightly. Suddenly, a formidable belch escaped the lucky halfling, alleviating the pain which plagued his abdomen, ?Phew, that sure had some kick to it- mmm, tasted like blueberry.?

The cyan haired half-blood stared at her brother in shock. Never before had she seen someone so audaciously ignore all forms of common sense so regularly, and live to speak of it. It was unfathomable as to how Trunks managed to summon the discipline needed to master the skills he knew.

?Aha!? Cell exclaimed, shattering Bra?s concentration like a rock through a car window, ?The diary of Doctor Flagg.?

?How is that going to help us?? the ader inquired. His silvery eyes seemed to glint with curiosity under the powerful lights of the research lab. He and the two halflings approached the android and his find, all wanting to know what had been discovered.

?Maybe he wrote something about what was going on,? Cell explained, setting the book onto a table to allow the others to view the solitary passage it contained, ?Only one entry...?

The black speckled monstrosity read the words aloud in a cold kind of monotone. He finished the final sentence hesitantly, and an uncomfortable silence fell over the group. The entry, though vague, was obviously written out of an extreme kind of fear. The very thought of writing something out in case of some kind of catastrophe was one of intense anxiety.

?Some clue. So, we?re supposed to go to the hospital, huh?? the sarcasm laden within the girl?s words painfully apparent, ?How the hell are we supposed to get there without a map!??

?Actually...? Android 21 began, ?We?ve only begun to search the research lab. The rest of the base may have become... unimportant, but there could be a wealth of information here - in the lab - that we?re not supposed to just come across.?

?You?re saying that we spend more time in this brick shit house?? Bojack inquired, making a bit of an attempt at injecting some humor into his question, though the lack of reaction seemed to indicate that he didn?t do so well. Cell shot a fearsome glare at the ader.

?This... brick shit house... might just contain some information on how to get out of this predicament. Or at least, whatever we find could explain what happened to all the corpses we?ve found.? he retorted, marching further into the laboratory. Bra followed the amalgamation of the universe?s finest warriors, deciding that his recent displays of expertise within the base were merit enough to put faith in his theory. Jack and Trunks soon followed, trailing the other two by a handful of paces.

In moments, the foursome had splintered apart, as each warrior took it upon his or herself to examine the various documents and items which were strewn about on tables and shelves, on the floor, or even as files placed on a series of computers.

The lavender haired fighter?s method of searching involved making paper airplanes out of a set of plans which Cell had previously discarded, and tossing them through the air in an attempt to hit his sister in the back of the head. Thus far, three of his planes had faltered and crashed prematurely, but luckily, Bra was still oblivious to his actions. Trunks took a moment to mourn the imaginary passengers who died in the three failed flights, and made a solemn promise that those who flew in Plane Four would not die in vain. He deftly tossed the expertly crafted passenger jet at the girl, watching as it sailed upward. It was going to fly right over her!

?No!! Go down, you idiots!!? the hybrid issued the hushed order, shaking his fists at the pilot?s poor flying ability. At the last available second, the vessel pitched forward, crashing mightily into Bra?s head, destroying the front end of the plane, and bouncing off before falling to the floor. The youthful princess whirled about as Trunks burst into laughter.

?Got you agaa-ain.? he taunted, causing a smile to form on the younger hybrid?s countenance. Her brother looked older, but acted younger. It was, admittedly, extremely frustrating, but his honest amusement was apparently infectious. She couldn?t help but giggle at his ridiculous victory dance.

?Hey, Cell. The hell are these?? a gruff voice broke the atmosphere. The artificially created warrior craned his neck to see what Bojack was talking about. The ader pointed to a series of canisters lining one of the walls, each one of them labeled with massive warnings, written in what appeared to Bra to be Russian, though she had no actual experience with the language.

The creature set the paper he?d been reading to the side and approached the various identical containers. In an instant, his expression changed from his usual apathetic nonchalance to one of intense displeasure.

?This- this is O-ethyl-S-(2-iisopropylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothiolate.? his tone had become extraordinarily grave. Trunks looked at the several canisters, then at Cell, and then back to the canisters.

?What?s it mean?? he inquired.

?VX.? the monstrosity elaborated. The lavender haired individual nodded thoughtfully, a hand on his chin once again.

?What?s that??

?VX is... an incredibly lethal nerve agent. A quantity like this is more than enough to wipe out a large city on Earth.? Cell explained, ?Death can happen in minutes. If any of you experience miosis or a runny nose, or muscle spasms, say so right away.?

?Heh. Awfully compassionate of you.? Bojack quipped.

?Don?t think I?m doing this to save your hide, ader. The agent is lethal to me, as well, and I?d like to escape the base alive if one of those canisters is leaking.? the monster retorted.

?Why the hell would Brim have such a big store of nerve gas? Is he planning something bigger than Friend or Foe?? Bra wondered aloud, running her hand along one of the cold containers. They were painted an olive green, and perfectly cylindrical. A series of pipes connected them all to a much larger pipe sealed off by a massive pressure valve, which would likely be used to transfer it to a tanker truck or something similar for distribution of the deadly chemical.

?I wouldn?t touch those.? Cell warned, causing the cyan haired princess to swiftly pull her hand away from the container of sinister neurotoxin. Suddenly, her proximity to the biological weaponry made her painfully uncomfortable.

?Could this... ?VX? be what killed the soldiers here?? the bandit questioned, mulling over the potential consequences in his mind.

?Definitely. However, it?s impossible to be sure without the proper equipment. In any case, there?s very little we can do about it without more information, so I suggest we move on through the rest of the lab... there might be more about the VX and this... Doctor Flagg... elsewhere.? the bio-android recommended.

[Bra]

The cyan haired princess had become disinterested with her artificially created comrade?s fervent research, and resigned herself to sitting on a table. She crossed one leg over the other, rhythmically kicking at the air just in front of her. Her hands were planted on the cold, metal tabletop, allowing her to lean back and breathe a long, weary sigh. Her silken locks gingerly brushed against the metal she was sitting on, causing the hybrid to flick her hair in annoyance.

Her much more energetic brother was occupying his time by crafting a grand tower out of precariously balanced glass beakers. He had been forced to stand up on a chair and from there to carefully step upon the table in order to reach high enough to place the next beaker. He mouthed the number ?13? as he moved his hands away while excruciatingly focused on not harming the tower?s extremely delicate balance. His goal, he?d announced, was 15.

Bra turned her neck just enough to catch a glimpse at the gaping hole Bojack had left in the wall. It led into another section of the facility. From there, he must have found - or blasted - a way out, as the halfling?s acute sense of ki indicated that he was quite far from her now.

Huh... Weird...

Her ki sense had become far more powerful, stretching easily to at least half the asteroid. Not only that, but her ability to gauge the strength of others without the aid of her expensive LENS system became significantly more effective. It was as though she had broken through a wall, releasing the pure potential of her ki sense. Not only that, but it seemed to provoke the child?s imagination; perhaps there was a further level, some higher echelon. For now, though, she would simply fall back onto her scouter for more precise readings.

?Oh-!!? it was her brother. An ear-splitting series of crashes rang out, and hundreds of shards of glass leapt in all directions, showering Trunks? table, and the floor around it, with a blanket of jagged, mirror-like fragments. Bra jumped in shock, almost falling off her own table, despite the fact that she had already begun to fear that her brother?s tower would topple after it began to slowly sway back and forth.

?You damn children!! You?re interrupting my work!? thundered Cell, pounding his fist onto a computer monitor, crushing it and shattering the screen. Sparks shot out onto the floor before it and the plastic casing splintered violently, reducing the expensive display to useless garbage.

?What?re you up to now, anyway?? the heiress inquired, hopping off the table. She ignored her lavender haired sibling for a moment, quietly making her way to Cell, who was preparing a slide for use under a microscope.

?I?m curious about this particular formulation of VX. Some of the notes I found mentioned it, but only briefly. But they seem to say that it?s... different, somehow. I?m going to test it.? the intimidating monstrosity explained, without taking his eyes off his work.

?Test it? How?? Bra tilted her head, unable to figure out what the black speckled creature meant with his statement. Cell paused to look up at her for a moment, and then drove one of his razor sharp, ebony fingernails into his own forearm, tearing out a piece of emerald flesh, much to the horror of the half-blood child before him.

?What the hell are you doing!?? she screamed, angrily thrashing her arms through the air. The twenty-first android neglected to reply, setting the quivering chunk of tissue onto the slide, which he carefully placed under a microscope. The aristocratic demi saiyan watched him in silence for a short while, but was unable to contain her curiosity, ?So, what? You?re a scientist now, too??

?Be quiet, girl.? Cell retorted, stomping back toward the dozens of canisters of VX. With extreme care, the musclebound horror removed one of the containers on the top row, taking slow, cautious steps back to the counter with his microscope. He gingerly set the metal canister onto the surface, his eyes furiously scanning over the VX container. With a dissatisfied snort, he trudged to the storage cabinet he?d retrieved all his tools from so far, and found a piece of rubber tubing with an elaborate connector on either side. He returned to the olive green container, tightly affixing one end of the tube onto a nozzle on top of the metal canister.

?What are you - are you crazy?!? Bra rushed forward now, but Cell was quick to send her sprawling with a burst of invisible ki. He growled angrily, the pupils of his eyes burning like searing hot coals.

?Shut up, you damn urchin!? he rumbled, opening the canister?s tap as wide as he could. A second nozzle at the end of the rubberized tube prevented the VX from spraying wildly into the laboratory, and therefore murdering the two halflings and perhaps even the genetic anomaly himself, ?You and Trunks. Get back.?

?But why-? the red clothed girl retorted, only to be swiftly cut down.

?Get back!!? Cell barked. It wasn?t cold. His voice almost sounded like... concern. Bra didn?t press the issue. She merely nodded, making her way to her brother?s position, and convincing him to head to the far side of the lab with her, claiming that there might be something interesting in that section of the laboratory.

The black speckled creature tightly gritted his teeth, squinting as he aimed the nozzle at the piece of flesh on the slide. A short burst of green fluid with the consistency of motor oil splattered onto Cell?s tissue sample. In an instant, the artificial warrior tripped the shut-off valve, once again sealing the extraordinarily deadly substance within it?s container. He flicked a switch, turning on a powerful exhaust vent above and behind his microscope, which would serve to pull the noxious fumes away before being able to cause damage to anyone within the laboratory. He placed an eye on the viewing glass, adjusting the magnification several times.

?Impossible.? he breathlessly exclaimed.

?What?s impossible?? Cell looked up in surprise. Trunks was now peering over his shoulder, hovering several inches above the ground in order to do so. The monster turned to see Bra, who wore an expression of helplessness. Cell snorted again.

?This VX is... tainted. It?s still extremely deadly... but it almost appears to be mutating my sample on a cellular level. But it... it just stops once the cells die. I?ve never heard of a nerve agent working in this way.? he explained. Trunks sharply coughed suddenly, all over the tissue sample, much to the bio-android?s chagrin.

?You idiot!! You?ll contaminate it! Get away from here!? the genetic anomaly demanded, pushing the halfling teen back, creating a small amount of space between his experiment and the troublesome youth. He peered into his microscope once more, pausing for a moment, ?...It doesn?t matter. There?s nothing more I can learn without a decent amount of time. We should meet this ?Doctor Flagg? at the hospital, then. We?ll be able to pry some answers from him.?

?Out the way Bojack went?? Bra questioned, hooking her thumb in the direction of the immense hole in the wall created by the ochre haired ader.

?No. We go back the way we came. We already know the route, and that elevator shaft we flew in will take us all the way to the top floor. We?ve destroyed virtually every security device up there anyway.? Cell replied, making his way to the lab?s exit. The two children of Vegeta followed after the menacing android, and none of the three warriors remained to bear witness to the tissue sample reacting with whatever Trunks had coughed onto it.

The foursome - now minus one - approached the smashed elevator doors they had so hastily barreled through, running for their lives from one of the more ridiculous traps that Brim had laid for them. Android 21 was the first to approach the edge of the shaft, craning his neck to look up the dimly lit expanse.

?After me, hm?? he muttered, leaping into the inky blackness, his aura erupting around him and illuminating his vertical route. Bra leapt after him, followed by Trunks, and the two caught up with their menacing guide with relative ease. They flew for what seemed like an age, causing her to finally realize just how sprawling the underground complex must have been.

Cell shuddered to a stop, raising his outstretched hand at the pair of doors before him. He smirked as a burst of ki ignited in the expanse between his palm and his target, ripping both doors off their supports and hurling them into the hallway before them.

?Top floor.? he uttered, when suddenly his face curled up in disgust, ?You stink, boy.?

Trunks gave him a quizzical look, but his sister had realized it, too. He smelled acrid, like the strange luminescent fluid he?d consumed in the laboratory earlier. It was as if he exuded the sickly-sweet scent from his pores, and was difficult to ignore.

?Smells like that blueberry stuff, huh?? the lavender haired fighter agreed. The trio simply continued down the hall, passing one of the morbidly familiar corpse heaps as they continued down the long corridor. As they continued, they found a series of scorch marks and gouges in the walls and floors, as well as the smashed remains of dozens, if not hundreds, of automated sentries. Soon, they found themselves in the barracks once more. Bra surmised that the exit couldn?t have be more than a couple hundred feet away from here. They passed another pile of bodies. This had been the first one they found. She stopped for a moment, gazing at the unfortunate men in uniform who were so disrespectfully disposed of.

?Poor guys.? Trunks commented, allowing his blade to rest on the floor for the time being. The halfling?s sister glanced over at him, then at his sword, recalling that the ader was still in possession of much of her brother?s katchin.

?They?re dead because they?re weak.? Cell interjected, ?Not even able to survive long enough to become a part of my perfection.?

Bra glared at him, both horrified and outraged. She prepared to deliver a scathing reprimand, but movement in the corner of her eye distracted her. The girl ignored it, but it became insistent on ruining her concentration. Finally, her withering glare fell upon the annoying motion.

?What the-!? Cell??? she demanded, a tone of fear strangling her voice, ?Cell, what the hell is this!??

The pile of dead soldiers had begun to write. Hands grasped at the air and feet clumsily swung about. Finally, one by one, the shambling ?dead? men climbed to their feet, every one of them stopping upon viewing the three intruders. Bra was mortified. Their gazes were empty, devoid of any emotion, of any hope or despair. Such a monument to unlife was the void of nothingness in their eyes that it threatened to consume the girl?s sanity. She forced herself to look away, shaking like a leaf.

It was clear that they were dead. Two of them had gaping holes in their chests from where Cell had punched his fist, in search of some morbid clue hidden within. That, combined with the shriveled, contused skin seemed to confirm their lack of vitality without question.

?No ki at all. They?re... not alive.? the bio-android commented, stepping back as the shambling mass of fallen soldiers took a collectively uncertain step forward. The princess? eyes grew wide with fright.

?Zombies!? These - these things are zombies??? she exclaimed, her aura bursting about her fragile constitution, as if creating a security blanket of fire for the young royal.

?...As absurd as that sounds... yes, I think so.? Cell replied. Bra was completely unable to detect from his somehow perfectly even tones wether he was hiding his fear, or if he felt no discomfort at all, ?And they?re between us and our way out of here.?

?Zombies...? Trunks thoughtfully commented, readying his blade, ?Then we?re zombie hunters.?

OOC: Trunks. IM me, phool.

[Drake]

To Whom It May Concern,

If you find this letter but not us, than it seems that we were unable to make it through this night alive. But if you?re reading this right now, something did go right and everyone else will be safe. I guess it would probably be best if I cease being so cryptic and start at the beginning so you understand just what exactly went on that night.

It started with me, Barb, Chris, and Jack being asked to go check out some abandoned military base; some foul smelling homeless man had barged into the sheriffs office in what could only be described as a drug induced stupor- rambling on about dead bodies. Being that the sheriff of that Podunk town was a 70 year old fart who hadn?t done much else but drink and sit on his ass for fifteen years, we were called in to investigate since it appeared as though the bum had stumbled onto a possible homicide case.

Boy we were wrong.

I should have known that something was up when our very own government denied that the base existed, even though we were standing in front of it. They claimed it was merely a filing error and that this sort of thing happened all the time, but these were bureaucrats, the one thing those bastards loved to do was file in triplicate. There was no way they would lose an entire base; however, I was foolish enough to actually swallow that load and we proceeded to go into the compound in search of ?bodies?.

I should mention now that when the Sheriff had given us his report on what the bum had described, the aged bastard had forgot to add that the scene was closer to some mini-holocaust- fuck; half decayed bodies all over the damn place heaped on top of each other or just laying mangled in the middle of the floor. If that hadn?t been bad enough, the smell in that stagnant building was more foul than anything I had ever encountered, and I can guarantee you that I have gone through my share of horrid crime scenes. The worst was finding a lost little girl who?d been stuffed into a barrel after some sick fuck had raped her, needless to say, the heat and lack of an opening left us with a fairly nasty bucket of human goop and bones.

In comparison to this, that was a good day.

We knew something was up after that, anyone would unless they were deaf, dumb and blind. In lieu of this, Chris suggested that we split up and search the place to try and find some clue as to what the fuck had happened in this place. It?d be about an hour or so, I wasn?t really paying much attention to the time, before Barb would stumble upon some memo from a scientist talking about this deadly nerve agent, ?Bx? or ?Vx? fuck if I knew. From what we could understand, it seemed like there had been some kind of leak and everyone in the base had died as a result but due to the nature of this fatal chemical, they had to seal up the place. I was right, it wasn?t your average homicide, this needed the big boys to come in and get involved ? we sent Jack back to go call them in.

Damn, I wish it was me that had gone.

Barb, Chris and I continued to search through the place to make sure that ?VX? crap wasn?t posing a threat to the nearby town.

This is where everything went to shit.

You watched those horror movies as a kid, and laughed at the poor acting and ridiculous make up; unless you were some pussy that actually believed that stuff- if you were, smack yourself. Yeah, well the real deal was totally fucked up beyond anything you could imagine. It?d hard to wrap your mind around a walking corpse, flesh literally falling from their bones and the dead vacant look in their eyes, if you manage to keep a level head in that situation- you will be a better man than me. Needless to say, we all panicked and began to unload an entire round into the group of walking dead- fuckers could take an entire clip and keep moving like nothing had happened. It took a crack to the base of one of their skulls with my rifle butt to show us that they stopped moving once you severed the connection of the brain to the body, not that it helped us much- so many of the bastards.

Chris and Barb did the best they could to keep them at bay, but eventually we were forced into some small office- fucking bureaucrats- and now I spend what time I have left on this mud-ball of a planet to type this letter.

Ah well, it was a fun ride while it lasted- bye.

P.S. Jack, if you get this letter, keep your hands off my wife you small dicked bastard. Heh.

Zombies, it was just like in that game ?Zombies in Area 58: Uprising?, Trunks couldn?t be more elated with the idea of cutting a path of destruction through the undead. This little game of Brim?s was turning out more and more fun every minute he was on the chunk of rock. ?Groovy!? Remarked the boy, using a line he?d heard once in an old movie. There was only one type of weapon necessary in any gore fest involving the walking dead, actually that?s not true, there are many, but this one is the best.

The sword Trunks held in hand began to shift its shape, its liquid metallic form taking a somewhat familiar shape before solidifying into what the lavender haired boy had been itching to use since he saw the first of those corpses begin to stir. A chainsaw. Though it lacked gas, and an engine, it didn?t stop the boy from using his energy and skill with metal-binding to actually get it to work like the real deal- a flesh grinding chain.

But he did have to make the sound on his own.

?Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn vrrrrrrn vrrrn vrrrrrrn vrrrn!? Trunks mimicked as best he could. ?It?s time to kill me some zombies!? Bone-crunching, flesh ripping, sinew tearing mayhem followed soon after.

[Burter]

END OF ROUND