ic It Started When An Alien...(IC)

[Ari]

GM

 

January 1st, 2017, 12.05AM

On a road deep inside Wharton State Forest...

 

The truck, or whatever it was, jerked and skittered across the thousandth patch of ice. 

 

James White of Earth-W 1042005 had an advantage over almost any other life-form, but with a sack over his head, power-nullifying manacles clamped around his wrists and ankles, and a sedative drug coursing through his body those powers were a pretty abstract comfort. Like knowing what that bright, hot thing in the sky is seconds before the meteorite hits you.

 

Around him he could hear the breath of his captors. They were, to a...potentially man, silent, but the catch of their lungs, the easing of armored suits and the rattle of cumbersome metal objects at least gave some idea of what kinds of people would drug a guy at a tavern celebrating New Year's Eve.

 

Suddenly, one spoke "What about the League?"

 

Another "Hm?"

 

"They'll come for him."

 

"The dupe will work long enough. John Adams knows his job. It'll be months before anybody notices and never until they find us."

 

The other grunted skeptically, but lapsed into another long silence.

 

Very thankfully, they hadn't bothered to cover James' ears or mouth with anything more than the sack.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Ari

[GamerXZ]

"Owww...my head..." The young man wearing the sack groaned as he finally awoke and returned to the waking world. Almost immediately though, he could feel himself wincing as a sharp pain went through his noggin. His thoughts were all in a mess, but the last thing he recalled was being at a tavern to celebrate New Year's Eve. He wondered if somebody had spiked the punch...but then his mind shifted to how that would knock him out considering what the virus had done to his biology.

No, it would have to be pretty strong stuff to be able to knock him out for any period of time...which meant whomever had done it, had done so intentionally...not helping matters was the fact that there seemed to be something obscuring his vision and as he listened, it seemed that he was in some sort of moving vehicle, and the clanking of metal meant whomever had taken him was armed...and dangerous. 

 

He stayed quiet for a bit longer, both to get his bearings and to overhear what his captors were up to.John Adams. He would have to file that name away for later.  Apparently, they had kidnapped him...for some reason, our hero wasn't really that perturbed about it. If anything, he was more annoyed than anything else. Chalk it up to that whole ordeal involving him being a captive on an alien ship and being experimented on but after an event like that this was actually more on the mild side. 

Finally, he decided it was time to say something. As such, he used what strength he had to lift his head up, "Umm...excuse me?...Who are you lot and...why did you kidnap me?" Keep calm. In situations like this it was important to maintain a level head and not let on they were getting to you. 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2017 by GamerXZ

[Ari]

GM

 

Silence.

 

"That much wore of this soon? Je-!"

 

"Don't take the Christ's name in vain, Hamilton."

 

The other voices had sounded young, younger even than James. This one was much older. Had a northern sound to it, definitely not like the rounded and mangled sounds of coastal Jersey.

 

"You're here because you're a threat to national safety and the well-being of law-abiding Americans everywhere. The League might let an alien with doomsday powers in a human host walk the streets, but we won't. As for who we are? That's easy. Patriots."

 

"You can't just show up here and do what you like, alien." This one was young, a little deeper though, echoed funny "you'll see how Lincoln deals...with...urrrrgh...!" 

 

"Madison! What's wrong? Your body, what's happening?!"

 

"Oh God, Polk too! All the Sentries!"

 

"Secretary, this is Chief! Stop the transport, stop the-!"

 

Then everything exploded again. Something whippy crashed into the walli  behind James, tearing it apart like tissue paper before something else flung the man bodily out of the careening vehicle and into a snowdrift.

 

Far off, in some other universe, there was a deafening explosion and a tortured roar.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Ari

[GamerXZ]

It took the captive a few moments for what he was hearing to actually sink in. "...Seriously? That's what this is all about?" The young man didn't even bother to hide his growing annoyance, "You drugged me, put a bag over my head, somehow managed to seal my powers, stuffed me in what I'm sure is a moving vehicle that's likely dragging me off somewhere to get dissected, totally ruined my New Year's Eve...all because you got a little spooked of me and cause of your so-called "patriotism"?" He put air quotes around that last word to show just how little he was buying their excuses. 

"Well, I got news for you guys, despite how it may look I am NOT an alien!" He managed to shout through the sack covering his face. "I was experimented on by aliens, yes. I have an alien virus in my veins, yes....but I am NOT an alien!" The young man took a deep breath to compose himself, "Ok, let's pretend for a moment that you guys are right...so what? Even if I am, you have no right to treat me like this. I have rights...besides, I haven't hurt anybody...at least anybody who didn't deserve it...and I save people's lives on an almost daily basis! Tell me, when was the last time any of you got someone's cat out of a tree or helped an old lady across the street?"

He looked side to side before sighing, "You know what? Forget it...just...let me off here...and I'll see to it that the League goes easy on yo-" However, he had no time to finish that line as he suddenly heard one of the men gurgling. "...Uh...is something the matter?" All of a sudden, he heard screaming and the sound of metal being seared through as something smashed out the wall behind him, sending him sprawling to the ground. It appeared this night had just gotten worst...for not just him but everyone involved.

 

The young man somehow knew he didn't have a lot of time so he needed to act quick. He reached up to the bag and started fumbling with it to try and remove it....

 

[Ari]

GM

 

The scene that met his eyes hardly beggared description. To someone who had nearly become an intragalactic gladiator it was more shocking in the mix of familiar and alien.

 

The snowy hillside, air and trees and rugged road still thick with enormous crystals, the pavement suddenly ending several yards away at a flaming wreck smashed into the granite cliff. Among the wreck, in the light of the fires, hideously-warped creatures dimly recognizable as men tore into the metal shell or charged at other men in black uniforms. They were only a few, but they kept spread out and focused  fire and dodged and fought admirably, for all that their blazing energy shots mostly just pinged off the shifting skins.

 

Nobody wore any insignia except for a US flag.

 

Around James were pieces of the truck that had imprisoned him and what looked very like a gun. Almost unbelievably. 100% gun. A gun with the safety off and a very full battery.

 

 

[GamerXZ]

Once again, the young man had to take a few seconds to get his bearings. Once he did though...well, a part of him wished he hadn't. All around him were signs of a fearsome battle. Despite the cold weather, fires were raging, wreckage was strewn everywhere and men in armor were fighting off what looked like some type of hulking monstrosities. In some ways, it looked like a scene from one of those Alien Invasion films. 

He groaned and saw the gun lying next to him. Perhaps he could use that to forge a lockpick and undo the cuffs, letting him get a quick getaway...however, almost immediately he banished that idea from his mind. These so-called "patriots" may have been idiots, and they had indeed ruined any chance of a happy new year for him...but they didn't deserve to die for that. 

 

His strength now having mostly returned, he called out to one of the men in uniform, "Hey, you!" He cleared his throat, "Yeah, you...mind letting me out of these cuffs, please?" He held out his wrists, "Look, I know what you're thinking...and I got no intentions of killing you or running away...let me prove my "humanity" to you by helping you stop your friends over there..." He gestured to the transformed soldiers, "You got two choices here...either leave me like this and risk letting everyone here die...or take off these cuffs and maybe, just maybe...you guys can go back home to your families alive...I mean, at least some of you must have people who would be devastated if you didn't come home..."

"Please...don't let fear stop you from doing what is right..."

 

 

[Ari]

GM

 

The man James addressed glanced at him. Then back at the roaring monsters. Then at the inviting snowy forest. For an agonizing moment he paused, a keyfob-like object clutched in the hand not holding a gun, visibly weighing his own options as the melee roiled behind him. 

 

Then his eyes met James' and a decision was made. His hand squeezed and the manacles suppressing Quantum Shift's powers died with a low-pitched groan. They fell from his hands and feet with a tremendously satisfying *CHNK* muffled only slightly by the snow. The dam burst and once again endless potential flooded Shift's human host! 

 

"Don't make regret that!" the agent shouted over his shoulder as he charged back into the fray! 

[Ari]

GM

 

One of the armored monsters pointed at the guy who'd helped James. "Traitor!" The voice was warped and bestial, in fact it was almost incomprehensible, but the action backing it up helped clarify the towering monster's meaning. 

 

Charging through the ring of agents the former man raised another hand towards James. Both palms reshaped into blaster cannons that unleashed first a throbbing hum then a roaring hail of super-heated plasma!

 

As he got closer the creature skidded to a halt several yards from James, stumbling backwards as their body, a melding of chtinous exoskeleton and human flesh, twisted and flowed around glossy cybernetic implants emblazoned with the American flag. Collapsing to one knee, the monster let out a shuddering, wordless scream of anguish.