Dawn of the Zobos (IC)

[Aoiroo]

It definitely didn't stop Catalyst. She hit the accelorator and took off, plowing through the zobos like snow, and rounding the corner. She pushed forward to get to Station 66, but she still looked back at Diedre nervously. She needed help, real help now, but it wasn't going to get any better if she left the Zobos keep going. This needed to end, it needed to end now, and the only way to end it was to find the end game. Hopefully the source could be located before anybody else gets killed.

[Supercape]

GM

The Zobo's were still patchy, and Catalyst's driving had given her and Diedre some breathing room. The frontside of her trusty Van was a little worse for the wear, with some dents, broken headlight, and rather suspicious stains, however.

Diedre was looking pale, but she was resolved.

"It was here, I am sure he went here. I know these rails like the back of my hand. Please, you have to stop this...before anyone else is taken..."

Station 66 was just as delapidated as it always was, but it was plain to see there had been a lot of recent activity - footsteps in the dirt, some shuffling, some booted...

[Aoiroo]

Driving through them like before was pretty easy, even if a bit bumpy they were still human, and vans versus humans vans win. She pushed through towards the door before looking out. Jumping out of the van she took half a second to shoot the doors and windows with the foam. They sealed shut, it wasn't air tight, but it was much too rigid for anything to get in or out without the solvent she kept hand. It would hold the zobos at bay to keep from them getting to Debbie. Hopefully she could hold out. She tapped her bluetooth as she ran and called for an ambulence, but decided against it, the EMPs wouldn't be able to handle the zobos, she really needed to get more hero contacts, they would be useful for this sort of thing, or at least someone who could fly.

She made her way down some hall, it was dark, and even if she could read heat she couldn't really make up much for the low light as she tried to go deeper to get to the bottom of this.

[Supercape]

GM

Under the station, a small headquarters had been built. The stairs leading down were dimly lit, although the open plan in front of Carrie was much better lit. She could see a small generator running, and row upon row of medical and cybernetic equipment.

Sedated Hobo's, the few who were left, were on several bed's, wired and tubed up, and deeply unconscious.

It soon became obvious who was behind these experiments.

SHADOW!

A dozen Shadow operatives, dressed in full military garb, all black and red, were on guard in the facility...

[Aoiroo]

Catalyst started down the hallway with two guns in hand with a quick run through she aimed and fired each one with the same foam she used outside to glue this guys to the ground and to keep them there. The effective runby left them stunned, as she got the jump on them and found decent cover while she reloaded more of her sticky foam. While she did she glanced out and surveyed the area one more time, it seemed she wasn't one hundred percent on the effectiveness, but she started back again, doing another round to pick up the rest and finish the job.

[Supercape]

GM

Once again Catalyst's glue struck true. The SHADOW agents were held fast - completely encased in the heroine's miraculous invention.

They struggled valiantly, fanatically even, but mere human muscles were no match for the glue. It would take them hours to work themselves free, if they didn't exhaust themselves from the effort.

The armed agents did not speak. Only the scientist in charge, a balding man with a combover and a skeletal frame, opened his mouth.

"So, you tracked us down!" he said, grunting as he tried to free himself.

"No matter, the experiment was a failure any way. We can't control the reanimated bodies. They are virtually mindless! barely able to put one foot in front of the other. No use to SHADOW...." he explained, as he once again pursued a futile effort to free himself.

[Aoiroo]

Catalyst narrowed her eyes and switched her cartridge and approached the scientist who spoke,

"You kidnapped people off the street, and then committed genocide and that's all you have to say."

She squeezed the trigger and let the pepperspray hit him square in the eyes, if he screamed her gasped she ignored him then looked at the others,

"If any of you guys have anything useful to say, now would be the time to say it. Since everyone here is an accessory to mass murder, I have no qualms giving you all the same as him until the police arrive, which may be a while."

[Supercape]

GM

"No! No!!!" wailed the Scientist, his eyes streaming.

"Aaaaah! it stings! please, I beg of you! stop it!" he grimaced, his face contorting.

"It was a super-soldier programme..." he spluttered, his eyes giving him no relief. "We were going to reanimate dead soldiers, control them...we started with the homeless, nobody would miss them, totally expendable. Couldn't use other dead bodies, they had to be fresh..."

"We had plenty of mistakes, but we were getting close. Then, success! our patient zero you might say. But he started to degrade, become uncontrollable. And worse, infectious...the others he infected were sterile, but patient zero, he can still infect them. He is very...potent..."

[Aoiroo]

She had to stop herself from shooting him again when he said totally expendable. In fact she had to stop herself from ranting in his face. It wouldn't do any good, it was a waste of breath trying to get him to think like a decent human being, it was too far past that now.

"Where is he?"

She switched the cartridge in a very obvious manner and put the barrel of the gun against his forehead,

"Tell me were patient zero or the next one is acid."

[Supercape]

GM

"No! No!!!" screamed the poor man, his face full of terror. Clearly the tactics of intimidation and violence were not so palatable when the boot was on the other foot.

"We don't know! I swear! Please!" he gabbled.

"We have been trying to track him...but we don't know. He seemed to show some rudimentary intelligence, or, to be more precise, some left over habits. He was haunting his old areas, where he used to sleep rough. We know that much...but, well, its a big area to cover round here, and we had limited resources..."

"I know his name was Alan Graves, and I have his biomedical data...." he offered as way of help.

[Aoiroo]

"Hand it over, now."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it was firm. Taking the information she went to the surface to make a call,

"Hello police department this is Catalyst, I have identified Patient Zero, Alan Graves."

She used the information on the thing to give a short description,

"He will be haunting former places of interest where homeless, and unlike the others, he is zombie apocalopse level infectious. Once confirmed, do not approach, kill on sight, aim for the head, and definitely double tap. We do not need this genocide to grow any larger then it has."

[Supercape]

GM

"Roger Roger!" came the reply over the somewhat distorted airwaves.

A police van pulled up outside a mere fifteen minutes later. It had been a little difficult to mobilise, as many local cops where mopping up the chaos of the outbreak that had fortunately not spread far. Police cars did not travel well on the broken rail track and refuse of the abandoned depot.

As the police helped Catalyst tie up and process the SHADOW agents a call came through on the police radio.

"Patient Zero sighted! Positive ID! Request for Backup!....Police opening fire..." came the call, before a pregnant second of radio static.

"He's not going down! Police down! Police down! Calling for Backup! All units near Station 66! Officer down!!!"

[Aoiroo]

Catalyst ran up and to her van. If there were any zobos in between they found themselves pasted to the ground as she pushed passed towards the van. She opened the door and did but a backwards glance towards her passenger before pressing on the gas. There was an uncomfortable bumping and crunching as she soared over train tracks and gravel, but it did not damage her van as she speed through. It was only just a little bit before she found herself at the site as the cop cars blazed through the golden glow of the ancient flood lights.

There was a screech as the van went from eighty to zero and her door flew open her blue rubber boots crunching on the unsteady ground. There was a paint ball pistol in each hand as she ran to get through.

[Supercape]

GM

Patient Zero looked like pretty much every other SHADOW experiment she had run into over the course of the day. A shambling wreck of a vagrant. There was something about this one though. He moved a little less clumsily, he shuffled faster, with urgency, almost rage. Whatever viral, bacterial or chemical agent burned through the other poor men burned that much brighter in this one. His flesh seemed more weathered, veins blackened and throbbing through paper thin skin.

The two cops, behind their patrol car, fired bullets into the man with no perceptible effect. Zero took hold of the patrol car and pulled it apart like he was ripping open a carefully wrapped gift.

The two cops looked at each other and started running, waving at Catalyst as she jumped into the fray, her guns ready...