Late Evening of the Simulated Living Dead

Log Info

Title: Late Evening of the Simulated Living Dead
Emitter: Claire Hastings
Characters: Claire Hastings, Sasha Romanova, Sunday, Alia
NPCs: 4 Simulated, Demonic Zombie Ninjas
Place: Thunderdrome
Time: 5-19-2010 1900 hours
Summary: Claire, Alia, Sasha and Sunday go to Thunderdome for a bit of practice and "fun" Claire wrote the scenario. Fear.

_( The Thunderdome - Western Grounds - Steranko Institute )___

The Thunderdome is a massive structure, the inside only slightly smaller than the outside suggests. When turned off, the hexagonal hard-light generation panels that make up the room can be seen. A small elevator to the north leads to a control room half way up. A door to the men's locker room is to the east, with the women's locker room to the west. The door out is to the south. The room actually looks rather boring when not in use.

It's after hours, for most students and they are going about their business, studying or eating dinner or even just hanging out being kids. Claire's not doing that today. Being a realtively new student and only having been her a couple of week, she's determined to catch up and that means extra powers training in the Thunderdome facility. She asked around to see if anyone else might like to help her out with either competition or cooperative testing. The facility could be used to generate any environment for the purposes of testing, though Claire's not sure that will help with her powers. She's in the changing room trying on the skin-tight unform she's been assigned for phsycial training. It's black and tight with red piping, marking her as being from Rider Hall, She sighs as she seals it over her body and tugs at the neck a little. "This is so lame. I hate this outfit."

Alia glances over at Claire, wearing the standard school uniform for Taylor. She has her hair tied back in a ponytail, exposing her pointed ears. Then she hrms, idly channeling some light to her fingertips, practicing her control, "What were you thinking of doing, Claire?"

Sunday has just finished pulling on her own outfit, very similar to Claire's seeing as how they're from the same hall. She looks equally thrilled to be dressed up in it, pushing and smoothing here and there to try and feel less… exposed. She doesn't go around in tight clothing generally. This is a bit uncomfortable. Pulling up her hair in a tie, she glances over at the other two girls and says "Um.. Just be easy on me, okay? I'm really, really gonna suck at this. Really." From the way she bites her lower lip, it's obvious she is quite nervous about the whole thing.

"It's not black," Sasha says as she saunters in. "Hey girls. Alia and…." she snaps a finger a few times, "fuck it, I've got nothing," she says to Sunday. It appears that Sasha isn't wearing a uniform at all, and has just tinted her body plating appropriately. When you're a cyborg, you can do that. "I just wonder, all the skin tight clothes, where are the hidden cameras."
You paged Holly with 'Lot of fun last night though and I am leaving that entire scene in Claire's canon.'.

Glancing over to Alia, Claire smirks. "Not sure, that's up to everyone. Do we want to work on using our powers together or do we want to spar against each other? I'm not sure my powers will be any good against computer generated foes, as they have no minds to read but I'm willing to do it if you guys are. Otherwise, well, I brought a lot of Excedrine if we have to spar and a buttload of apologies." Looking over to Sunday, Claire chuckles. "You won't suck. This is just practice. You can't such at practice. Besides, I have more to worry about, my powers involve knowing things. I only really have one attack." It's a nasty one when she wants it to be but she's not going to say that. Then in comes Sasha and she blinks. "Oh, hey! Didn't expect you to take me up on the offer. So glad none of the boys did," she looks down at her suit. "Somehow this thing makes my butt look huge and my chest even flatter than it is and I thought that was impossible."

Alia looks rather elfish, really. That is to say, a stick. She shrugs a bit, "Well, at least you have some curves to speak of, though it seems to be something valued more here than my world." She hrms a little, "As far as which to go with… frankly, either would suffice."

"Sunday," says the so-named girl, introducing herself to the shiny girl. "You are..?" also unfamiliar. She glances over at Claire as the girl mentions pain killers and apologies, and grins softly. "Just practice, right? What's there to apologize for?" Sunday doesn't yet know the whole story behind Claire's powers, so it's not really clear to her why she'd need to apologize for anything. "Attack?" Eh, unimportant at this moment, Sunday decides, and she waves it off with a smile before glancing over to Alia. "Maybe someday you'll be able to tell us more about what life is like on your world, Alia. It sounds pretty cool." Hands planted on her hips - she does have some, sorta - and tilts her head to the side and gives a kind of noncommittal shrug. "I'm good either way I guess.. I don't really know what all you guys can do. So.. what do we think would be most useful for not getting creamed in class?"

"Yeah," Sasha scoffs, "Because at your age you're totally on the path to waifishness," she says to Claire. "Hey," she says to Alia, "Not about having curves, it's about how you take curves." She pauses a beat, "That sounded better in my head. Like a slogan. A racing slogan. Or something," she says. "Dodge practice?" Sasha suggests. "I'm Sasha, by the way."

Claire suddenly realizes that the other girls might not have any idea what she can actually do. Looking between the three, she just lays it all on the line. "Ok, I can read minds, see the future, look anywhere on earth and deliver a pretty potent blast of negative mental energy. By Negative I mean I turn all my bad thoughts and problems into a blast of mental power and send it into the minds of my foes. Imagine a really bad headache and add a touch of guilt to that. That's what it feels like, from what I've been told. Other than that, I can't do much." She looks to the others, literally having no idea what Sunday can do and only a vague concept of what the alien does. Sasha, she knows what Sasha can do. "So don't take anything I do personally if we spar and I promise not to dig around in your heads for anything." She grins to Sasa lopsidedly, "Well, not all of us have a variable nody frame. I bet if you wanted you could generate some serious, hardcore curves. I've seen your bike form, nice lines."

Alia looks about to respond, then she suddenly hears a cheeping from her belt. Reaching down to pick up the device in question, she says, "Yes… oh, really? NOW? Well, of course, but I need to… oh, well, if that's alright then. Very well." She clicks the device shut, then looks apologetic, "I apologize, but I need to depart for now, something has come up." With that, she turns into her light form, shimmering brightly, and flies off through the walls of the Thunderdome as she takes the direct route off.

Sunday nods a few times, having been aware of the first bits about Claire's powers.. but the negative energy? The blonde's brown furrows, considering that. It.. must suck. For the person on the receiving end, anyway. The two other girls discuss curves, and Sunday just stays out of it, crossing her arms over her chest. "Bike form?" Jeebus, that's pretty cool! Glancing back at Claire, she recalls nobody here knows what she does, and clears her throat. "Oh, I can do things with temperature. Make things hot or cold. I know some tricks with it, but that's pretty much it." She glances over to Alia, expecting it to be the alien girl's turn to share, when she gets the call and then.. uh.. turns into light and flies away. Sunday's blue eyes go a little wider, looking up at the spot on the ceiling Alia went through. ".. Wow…"

"Does her Homeworld need her?" Sasha asks, twisting to watch Alia zoom away. "Anyway, yeah, Claire, guys like hard bodies but not *hard* bodies," she says. Sasha cracks a smile at Sunday, "Kinda is, yeah. Didn't see my cover, did you?" she asks.

Sighing just a bit as Alia leaves, Claire lets her little half-smile come back. "Well, scratch one combatant. So, let's show off what we can do for each other. Um…. I'll program a scenario into the machine to generate something for us to do. Then we can work together to overcome it?" She's been reading up on the Thunderdome, learning how to program it to do what she wants with it's hard light generators. "Unless anyone really wants to play beat on the goth for a while." She finishes getting ready by undoing her pigtails and just letting her hair fall around her shoulders. No sense giving anyone extra handholds in combat.

Totally oblivious to any practicalities of her hair being up in the ponytail, or why Claire is taking hers down, Sunday just shrugs a little at Sasha as the girl asks about Alia. "Cover? .. No, I don't think so." Her bright pink lips tug downward in a small frown, uncertain if she should have noticed some kind of cover or not.. Does she mean the fact that she's all.. shiny? Turning to look at Claire, Sunday nods. "Sounds good to me. Take it away, G-girl." This is gonna be.. interesting.

"Damn it. I'm so bitching out my publicist," Sasha complains. What's the point of being a teen racing star if you don't star in anything!? Sasha shifts her weight and looks up, across the dome. "Rock it, Claire."

Claire heads out of the locker room and into the Thunderdome proper. Taking a deep breath as she takes the DVD-ROM she brought with out of its case and slips it into the main computer interface on the wall. She looks to the others and says, "Scenario 666 please." Grinning a bit wickedly, she looks to the other two and chuckles. "This is why I apologized in advance."
With that, the room shifts as objects materialize, building themselves from hard light, which first builds a grid, looking like one of those old vectored graphics games from the old days of green and black video games, then fillng in the wire-frame boxes to create polygons akin to the graphics of a video game two cycles ago on the old Playstation 1. It only takes a second though for the shapes to gain real detail and substance, the lights dim and the room is now totally changed.

The three girls find themselves standing at the entrance to a cemetary. The moon hangs high and pregnant in the sky, full and directly overhead like a baleful, glowing eye casting down on them with disdance. The rusting front entrance is a massive, wrought-iron gate which hangs slightly off the hinges with the words "Collinwood Catholic Cemetary" worked in above. The metal is rusting and old. Inside the ground is covered in a rolling fog, old gravestones spreads out in even rows. On the other side of the wide spanse sits an old house on top of a hill, from which shines a single light. The house is decepit and falling apart, even from this distance and bathed only in the moonlight this is apparent.

"Ok, all we have to do is get across the graveyard and get into the House. Simple, right?" She's still grinning, almost maliciously.

"Why not give us an obvious setup," Sasha says judgementally to Claire. It's obvious what's going on. They'll be attacked. Duh. Sasha stretches out her right arm, which starts morphing over even as she moves it. The hand becomes a long nozzles with hoses. There's a puff and Sasha sends a burst of flame out into the cemetary, seeing what kind of trouble she can rustle up. "No problem," she says with a manic grin. "Nothing we can't smash or set on fire."

Having no such flashy ways of getting ready for a combat scenario, Sunday looks around the setting Claire has produced for them apprecatively, looking only briefly with a shooting glance at Sasha as the girl offers up a bit of snark. Glancing to Gothling, Sunday smiles and adds her own two cents. "It's cool, Claire. Very atmospheric. I especially like the fog." Fog is moisture. Moisture can be frozen. It gives Sunday something else to do, potentially. She glances up at the house, then jumps just a little when Sasha fires up her flame. "Holy crap!" .. Okay. This girl might be a little crazy. Sun's gonna reserve judgement. Instead, she just gives Sasha a wiiide birth, moving forward into the cemetary with caution.

"Wow… you're like a female Inspector Gadget. Only, you know, not a total moron." Claire doesn't seem overly surprised by Sasha's sudden change. "And I wouldn't just make this a simple 'get attacked and beat the enemies' scenario. What do I look like? A walking cliche?" She pauses. "Don't answer that. Anyway, there's a randomizer in the program so I have no idea when and where or even how many enemies will show up. We'll just have to get through them and overcome any other complications to get across and get into the House, where we will be safe and the program will evetually end." She cracks her knuckles. "Ready Then? Let's go." With that, she steps past the gate and into the Graveyard proper.

"I look better in heels too," SAsha says to Claire. "If we just burn off enough fog," she says, giving another burst of fire. across the graveyard. "I'm sorely tempted to just race it," she admits as she steps forward with Claire. "Let's do it."

"I wouldn't recommend that Sasha." Claire notes, the fog moving away from the blast of fire to expose the gravestone, it reads "Edward Cullen 2001-2010" And underneath the inscription "Died as he lived: Sucking". Claire doesn't seem to notice as she moves on, waving her head from side to side a bit, swaying slightly. The scenario is so very quiet. No birds, no bugs, nothing, just quiet.

Sasha tilts her head slightly as she steps into the graveyard with the others. "Did you have to make it so creepily quiet?" she asks. "I'm getting nothing…besides the Thunderdome's mechanicals."

"It's a graveyard. What did you want Jay-Z and Lady Gaga singing a duet of 'Poker Face?'" She smirks, appreciating that the quiet is unnerving. The stars shine down, twinkling coldly above in the firmament, though if one looks up, they might notice a few of them moving around. More immediately noticable though is the way the ground above a few of the graces is beginning to bulge upwards. "Keep alert, I'm not sure what's going to happen first. There are a few random things I tossed in that may or may not occur."

"Might be nice," Sasha says. Her fingers twitch, while her flamethrower arm stays pointed to the ground. Sasha believes in her reflexes, at least. "At least you know what it *could* be. Forewarned, forearmed and all."

"Well, if I told you it wouldn't be much of a test, now would…" She stops, "To our left." She turns just into time for the ground to explode over two graves, men clad in black pajamas with masks looking like traditional Japanese demons over their faces leap atop their tombstones. The closer one is armed with two, rusty swords while the one just behind him seems to have a long, slightly rotten, wooden staff. Claire grins. "Wow… they turned out pretty good!"

Hey, the fog! Sunday frowns, and then concentrates for a moment and begins to condense the moisture in the air that Sasha is trying so hard to evaporate, creating droplets of water on the grass. "I could use that." She's staying clear of the flame thrower, though really it might not too that much damage to her, but she'd rather be safe than sorry. A little snickersnort is given at the idea of Jay-Z and Lady Gaga popping up for an impromptu concert, lowering Sunday's guard a bit.. just in time for Claire to announce a direction. Huh? Left? "AAH!" Fright!! Sunday takes a leap backwards before sweeping up her hand to freeze the rusted swords sub-zero. It doesn't encase them in ice, just makes them a hell of a lot more brittle than they were. The staff, however, begins to sizzle and bursts into flames at random points as she heats up the wood. "What the- Claire!" Fright wearing down as Sunday packs up, she flashes a grin at the gothling. "You are one weird chick!" Not that Sun is complaining.

"I think she was talking to me!" Claire responds, hopping back. "My powers are useless against these things, they have no brains. But I can still predict their movements… sorta." She hangs back from the main combat, trying to see the future and determine what these things are going to do next. It's a valid test considering the randomizing factor the computer has programmed in to keep her off guard.

The one with the swords first has his swords freeze, then leaps at Sunday, only to find himself engulfed in flames. He falls to the ground and rolls around, trying to put them out while the Ninja Zombie with the flaming bow-staff chunks it at Sasha as hard as he can, trying to hit her with it while he rolls to the side and behind the gravestone. Next to Sunday, another grave begins to bulge a bit, the fog that would have hidden it burned away to make it easier to see.

"Really? Seriously?" Sasha asks the Zombie. Not that she expects a response, as such. The bow-staff smacks into Sasha's plating, leaving a dent but no serious damage. She lets off another burst of fire at the zombie. "These things burn, right? If they're asbestos zombies, I'm fucked!"

Normalicy? Talking to Claire? "Yeah, but I think you /both/ qualify." Sunday glances back quickly to make sure Claire got back alright, especially after she says her powers aren't much use here. Sunny even hops back a few herself when the flaming ninja monster thing goes down, her attention shifting quickly to the bulging grave beside her. The young girl grits her teeth and stomps a foot down, the water she condensed on the ground earlier now forming a layer of ice that spreads rapidly out from under her foot to over the grave, freezing every bit of moisture on and in the ground that she can. The idea is to keep the damn thing in its grave. "/Bad/ Ninja zombie!"

"They're not asbestos Zombies, That would just be silly," Claire chuckles, still hanging back, sidestepping a small patch of ground and then looking over to Sunday, "To your right Sunday, one is going to come up there." She waits, a small smirk on her face. "Oh, good, you saw it. Careful Sasha, don't underestimate them."

The zombie ninja that ducked behind the tombstone didn't have enough cover to protect himself from the flames and comes windmilling out to throw himself headlong into the ground, vanishing beneath it. The one that was rolling around stops moving. His face mask cracks in half, revealing a hideous face, half rotting flesh and half something vile and inhuman. His eyes shoot open, watery, yellow orbs with cat's pupils burning from within. He takes a swipe at Sasha's leg with his fingers, burnt down now into claw-like sharpness, the bones exposed.

"Not asbestos… but demonic." Claire notes with a grin. "Much less silly."

"Oh you're fucking kidding me!" Sasha snaps. At least the thing is on fire. She likes things that are on fire. They usually die shortly. Except this one doesn't, so it drops several points in her estimation. Sasha hits it with another blast of flame while she reconfigures her other arm into something a little more hands on.
With the frozen-over zombie apparently stuck, Sunday turns her attention around to the one taking swipes at Sasha, and as the girl users her flame-thrower on it again Sunday adds some juice to the fire, cranking up the heat of it on the demony zombie Japanese thingie to white-hot levels. "Aw, /gross/ Claire!" Sunday then circles around to see where the second one went behind the gravestone.

Claire chuckles and takes a little bow, which might not have been such a good idea as the ground to either side of her starts to bulge ominously, though that might be harder to see with the fog actually still around her, away from the flames. "Thank you, Thank you. Careful Sunday, there's a hole there, don't fall in." She is rather impressed with seeing the dangers her friends are in. Then her eyes go wide and she jumps forward spinning around.

Just in time for the graves next to her to explode and two more of the things appear. One is armed with a rusty chain weighted on both ends with spiked balls while the other is dressed all in red, the eyes of his mask burning red, black ooze dribbling from his chin, a wickedly curved sword with a serated blade in one hand, a short dagger in the other. When Sunday moves to check behind the tombstone, there is a hole, apparently not what the zombie wanted as it opens into a pit full of spikes upon which the impaled creature writhes for a moment before exploding into a cloud of foul-smelling, sulfurous gas, his clothes falling limp around the pole. The one at Sasha's feet wails in agony, the fire enhanced in temperature by Sunday, melting him where he is until he just explodes into nothing, even his clothes reduced to sudden ash.

Sasha rises back up just as the zombie finally breaks down into ash. Sasha's left arm has reformed into a long blade, so now she needs something else to chop the head off of. She pivots, looking for new opponents. Thankfully, there's two to either side of Claire. Can't flame them, so Sasha leaps forward and swings for the head of the one on her left.

"Thanks for the warning." And Sunday is mindful of the hole, coughing a few times when the sulfurous smell hits her nose and waving her hands to try and diffuse the cloud of it. She's not really paying attention like she should be, so it's no wonder the sound of Claire's alarm and then the zombies bursting forth catches her off-guard. "Claire!" she calls out, blue eyes going wide. A second later, Claire will feel a sudden rush of warmth around her as Sunday super-heats the air around the girl - her own version of a shield. It's the only small protection she can offer, without a lot more water. Sasha goes for the one of the left, so Sunday goes for the one on the right, concentrating on trying to just freeze the damn thing entirely with a burst of cold.

Claire jumps back at the sudden heat, bumping into a tombstone. She looks back to Sunday with a grin. "Thanks. Careful where you step, there are more traps under the ground. The graves that don't have zombies, contain traps. Don't step on the graves." She concentrates and gazes intently at the zombie in the red clothes, which is the one on the right.

The zombie Ninja on the left raises it's chain, catching Sasha's bladed arm, trying to trap it in the loops of that rusting weapon. It makes a sick, hissing noise as it does so, more of that sulfurous stench flowing forth. The one on the right, the one in red turns to raises its sword against Sasha, only to suddenly find that its legs are frozen to the spot, ice crawling slowly up the thing's legs as the fog condenses into ice about it. With Sasha, Claire and Sunday out of range, it spins the small knife around in it's hand and hunks it at Sunday.

Sasha makes a face at the zombie ninja. Foul, foul things. She's going to need to scrub vigorously after this. There's an upside to it catching her arm, though. Sasha yanks yard and puts her back to Claire, freeing her to hose down the zombie with a burst from her flamethrower without risk to the other teen. "Racing across the thing is looking better and better," she says.

"Shit!" Sunday tries to get out of the way of the knife, but it manages to hit her at the shoulder.. only to vanish as the hologram flashes a message for her, letting her know she's been severely wounded. No pain, but regardless the girl's face twists into anger - mostly at herself - since it works so well before, she superheats the air closely surrounding the red-covered zombie thing, looking to fry it into

Claire doesn't really have much she can do here, she just looks over to Sunday and eeps, offering a nervous smile and a shrug. "Yeah, maybe we should book it to the house Sasha. You able to run Sunday?" She's playing it mostly straight, as if Sunday really was wounded. She moves ot help her if she needs it.

Meanwhile, Black pajamed Demon Ninja Zombie boys goes up in flames, shrieking, the fire at such close range tearing right through him and causing him to just instantly burst like a popped balloom. A balloon filled with poo gas. The red Ninja thing suddenly finds it's legs free as the air heats up, it's clothes exploding into flames. It really doesn't seem to care as it leaps towards Clair, blade sweeping down at her back as she turns to move towards Sunday.

"Jesus, Claire, you have to make these things so gross?" Sasha asks, as she turns around, revealing herself to be splattered with zombie parts. Virtual, but still. "CLAIRE! GROUND! NOW!" she shouts. It's a bit too far for her to get to, but with luck Sunday can handle this threat.

"Yeah, I can do it," Sunday assures them, nodding once before her attempt to fry the red zombie back-fires. Her reaction is much the same as Sashas. "CLAIRE!!" As she cries out, her breath creates a plume of condensation. She hardly notices her whole body has dropped to near freezing temperatures, skin going pale and lips a little blue. Up to you, Blondie! Without thinking, Sun takes one rapid step forward even as her powers kick in almost on instinct - this time, instead of freezing the air around the red demon, Sunday tries freezing /the demon itself/ in the biggest blast of cold she can muster.

Claire chuckles. "Sasha, everything, including the smell with go away when the program ends. Don't…" She just drops where she is, taking Sasha's advice.

The demon behind her freezes in mid-air the shatters, the jagged sword clattering just next to Claire. Even ducking the thing would have run her clean through if it had connected. With the red demon gone, a computerized voice says "HEROES WIN! SCORE 75 OUT OF A POSSIBLE 100. MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: TIE! SASHA AND SUNDAY! CONGRATULATIONS!" Then, the gravyards fades away, leaving Claire lying on the floor of the Thunderdome, all traces of the combat and the stench, gone.

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