Where no Ark Hunter has gone Before!

Running away from batman and through the portal I hear him roaring behind me so I quickly cut the power and run down a corridor at random. After some time I hear a low roar and see three young lizards coming at me. Using my telepathic powers I manage to calm them and turn around just in time to dodge a slice from batmans sword recovering from the near miss I pull out two daggers from my pockets and whirl in a dance of blades with batman who seemed to be only stronger from the dose of poison he received.

"Crikey" Exclaimed Chloe Mac Gyver as she alternately stared at the radar screen and then out the cockpit window. "This is the worst damn razor rain storm I've ever seen!"

She turned on her voice mike, "Chris, mate, I dinnae think the shields can take the stain! We need more power! Chris, ya wanker, where are ya?"

One of the other crewmen reported, "He's gone to the cargo bay, mam."



Just then splinter of razor rain the size of a roofing nail went through the cockpit roof and embedded itself in Chloe's right hand, and she yelled in pain, "Fuck a duck! That man is a fuck muppet! He's about as useful as an arsehole on an elbow! I'm here pushing shit uphill with a rubber fork on a hot day!"

Chloe yanked the razor rain fragment from her hand, wrapping a handkerchief around as she stood up realizing she couldn't do anything more from the cockpit and needing to retrieve the first aid kit from the cargo bay. She took one step toward the cockpit door, realizing she had stepped in something sticky, then noticed she had stepped in a wad of Lady's bubble gum that was now stuck to the bottom of her boot.

"Crikey! I'm gonna give that bugger a piece of my mind!" Declared Chloe, getting angrier by the minute.

As she walked into the cargo bay, she noticed that Lady Christianna was laying on the floor and the cot was on it's side. At first she thought Lady must have fallen off the cot, and must have knocked a can of light pink paint over when she did so, then realized that it wasn't paint but Castithan blood. Concern replaced anger as Chloe grabbed the first aid kit from an overhead compartment and hurried to Lady's side, seeing that Lady's left leg had been hit by a large fragment of razor rain, cutting it nearly off at the knee. Part of Chloe's mind noticed how much Lady looked like a broken porcelain doll, but she dismissed the thought as she tried to stem the tide of blood gushing from Lady's leg, still held on by a thin thread of white flesh. She doesn't notice the blue pulsating light emanating from the locket around Lady's neck, that seems to be slowing down with every second like a heart slows it's beat as it dies.

"Fuck me dead!" Muttered Chloe, then realized how inappropriate her expletive was.

"Are you sure, you want to do it?" heard Volodja someone suddenly whispering into his ear.

"Absolutely"

"You can always turn your back and run away. It is all matter of choices. Think logically now. Who are these people, you fighting with, anyway? Total strangers."

Reason, why Volodja did not turn his head to seek for owner of that voice, was huge Forge he had to destroy. Besides - seeking for knowledge has it's advantages, like having piece of information about toxins and their influence on human organism. 

At least part of his sense knew that, so he answered: "Thank you for advice, product of my subconscious fears, pain and broken dreams, created by influence of lizard venom and stressful situation I happen to be in"

"Are you sure that you are the real one, Volodja? Maybe you are my illusion? Maybe you are not even here in this bunker, wasting your time fighting for non existent people. Maybe I created you, put you into that fight for my amusement and now I am sitting here, drinking my coffee and watching you."

"Getting philosophical, I see. Are we talking about that matter, where I do not know whether I am a man dreaming that I am a butterfly or butterfly dreaming to be a man? We can discuss about it, I am not mind, as long as we leave alone that simple part of me which has simple things to do, like shooting that Forge."

And he squeezed his AR-s trigger again, sending another bullet burst into his target. So simple.

Belle Starr and Dr. Orion raced through the Dark Matter portal as soon as Chloe Mac Gyver contacted them; she with her Demon Hunter pistol drawn, him with his medical kit in hand. With her long legs, Belle got to Lady Christianna's side first, seeing her light pink blood everywhere and a distressed Chloe trying to keep any more from leaking out of Lady's severed leg, but fighting a lost cause. Being a Liberata, Dr. Orion's legs were much shorter but when he did get there all he could say was, "Oh, my!"

Dr. Orion stopped the gushing blood coming out of Lady's leg quite quickly, but when Belle turned to him, her brow furrowed in concern, he could only shake his head, saying, "She's lost too much blood! Not even with her EGO's help... I'm sorry!"



Dr. Orion was trained in triage trauma procedure and although always sad to lose a patient, especially one so young, he knew that a doctor must move on to try to save the next one. He picked up his medical kit, and moved next to Atticus Batman to see what he could do there. Belle remained kneeling next to Lady, holding Lady's chalk white hand in her pale one, the black pants of her Castithan suit becoming saturated with Lady's blood as it stained it pink. Tears welled up in Belle's blue eyes as she began to cry uncontrollably.

Belle's tears fell on Lady's hand which Belle was holding, the nanites contained in them entering Lady's pores and then quickly entering her bloodstream. The nanites raced down the veins of Lady's arms, through her heart strengthening it as they went through, then pumped down her injured leg. As Belle blamed herself for Lady's seeming death, the nanites began reknitting sinew and muscle. By the time Belle realized what was happening, flesh cells were re-growing covering Lady's knee and leg making them good as new. Lady's blood cells multiplied a thousand fold in the time it took for Belle to think, "Maybe my organic powers are not all gone!"

Lady's pink eyes fluttered opened as Belle's nanites cleared that last of the toxins out of her body then became inert when their job was done, whereupon Lady muttered one word, "Atticus?"

Dr. Orion kneels over me, with the lizard (about the size of a German Shepard not counting the tail), laying near me, watching everyone extremely closely. The doctor grumbles as he looks at my side, the jumpsuit having a huge hole in it from where the creature's bite ripped and tore it. He applies some salves to the huge bite, to help neutralize some of the toxins. As he works he looks closely and keeps shaking his head and going "Hmmmm"

After a few minutes, he pulls Belle to the other end of the cargo hold, to quietly talk to her, so as not to worry Lady, more than necessary.

"I am not sure. As you know he is quite unique. Not much is known about Grid physiology and less about how poisons may affect them. Even worse, Atticus is the ONLY Irath/Grid in existence. So even less is known about his physiology. That salve should help draw out some of the poison. However, I am not sure what else I can do. I will of course treat this huge bite. Unfortunately, only he can remove his clothing since it is an "Organic" material, made from him, and linked to him by some kind of mental telepathy, A hive-mind thing. To us it appears to be clothing, however I had the privilege to run tests on some of it once. It is definitely part of him. None of us were able to remove it from his body, however he can remove it freely like any piece of clothing. I also know from our tests that.....that bite must of been excruciating. I mean more than any of us can know from experience. Yes we can imagine the pain a huge bite would cause, but that outfit is like a second symbiotic being. It has it's own nerve and pain receptors. Due to the hive-mind, Atticus can completely feel everything done to that material. So to have it ripped like that, to him it would be like getting his skin.....Well you get the point. Now since the bite did tear flesh and bone, as well as the outfit, you must triple everything he is feeling. So it would be like he is feeling the pain for three in this instance, since his Grid side and Irath both feel it fully, as does the material...." He then glances at Lady, and the locket she is wearing. "Well actually, he told me of his connections and feelings to the young Lady, so I would say quadruple becase he was most likely feeling the pain of four individuals. Himself, his Grid, his Grid outfit, and her. Then there is the fact that the crew on board is saying they believe he may have used all his Grid powers to get to her. Then he fought that beast for who knows how long. All the power usage, fighting, damage, poison and blood loss have taken a toll.

I am not sure what I can do, other than treat his wounds and try to purge all the poison. I even brought a bottle of his rum. We can force that down his throat and hope it helps. That is all there is that can be done. I am not sure if we can even bring him out of his coma this time. If he were completely Irathient, I'd suggest your nanites, but I am afraid his Grid side would reject them from his body before they could do any good. Also, as everyone knows, his Blue outfit has a rippling shimmer to it normally, but look at it. It is a very sickly pale blue. That means either it is lying dormant, like Atticus or worse it`s already dead which means the hivemind was severed and that would only happen if the most important part of that mind, Atticus, were already dead or about to die. So I don't know. I just don`t know."

As Lady sits there watching and trying to hear, she whispers "No, can't take him." As she says that she is holding the heart necklace, and sees it flickering with her life and her love for it's main body. She then says, "OH! His HEART!"

As everyone turns to see what is wrong now, she gets up and insists on being near me, so Chloe helps her over to me. Lady looks at Belle, then me, then the Doctor. Belle says, "I am sorry." This time, everyone can hear because, Lady says out loud, "No! Can't take him!!!"

She then drops to her knees and wraps her arms around me as much as she can, considering the size difference, kissing me repeatedly all over my masked face, and hoping with all her being ,that Her love for me will have the same affect on the "organic" clothing on me, that it has on the piece in her locket. If it does then perhaps, just perhaps, bringing it out of it's dormant state as well as that bottle of rum she sees with the Doctor, will do it.

As she holds me, refusing to let go my jumpsuit starts to shimmer like the piece in her locket. Then she looks at Belle and the doctor and says so sternly, that even Belle is shocked. "Give him rum. NOW!"

Belle looks at Dr. Orion, who just nods. Then Belle tips my head back and helps the doctor slowly empty the bottle down my throat, my Grid taking over and causing me to start hungrily swallowing the needed nutrients. After the bottle is empty, Doctor Orion treats and temporarily stitches my wounds and examines my ego, which appears to be working perfectly. However Lady will not let me go and the lizard will not leave the floorspace near me, that it is at. After a few more minutes Lady jerks in shock, as my right arm wraps around her then slides up and my hand is ran through her hair. When she slowly looks up, I am staring lovingly back. I say, "Thank Irzu! You are alive, MY Snow Angel!!"

She squeals in happiness that I am alive and awake and kisses me hard forgetting the audience. As she breaks the kiss, the black lizard with orange stripes that stayed by me, gets up and walks over and lays against Lady's side and nuzzles my arm, that is still gently playing with Lady's hair. As Lady glances cautiously at the creature, I start to talk again. "I am weak, and so sore. I used all my energy to......" She cuts me off with a slender finger to my lips. I gently kiss it. then talk again. "It appears I have a new friend, and it seems to like you too. Can I keep it, MY Lady? Also, this floor is uncomfortable, and it feels like I was discarded here like yesterday's trash or something. I hope Taffer and that other guy are alright, and that the mission isn't a bust because of my, well my need to be a hero. However, when can we go home, or at least get me off this damn floor?!"

The razor rain storm had passed on, and Belle Starr took command of the ship's crew that were still standing while Vo manned the team home base. All injured crew, including all members of the fire team except Chris Robet, were given cots in the cargo bay of the ship until Dr. Orion said they could be moved, then they were sent to the Home Base's sickbay in San Francisco via the Dark Matter portal. Lady and Atticus remained next to each other the whole time, as was expected. Belle insisted that Taffer remain in bed until Dr. Orion cleared him, debriefing him as to the mission once he was declared well. Chris took command of repairs to the ship, which Chloe Mac Gyver would fly it back once it was repaired, although she called him "Fuck Muppet" more than once during the trip, but always with a smile. The progenitor core was carefully stowed on the ship, as far away from the Dark Matter portal as possible. One crewman had died in the razor rain, one of her VBI maintenance team, so she sadly made arrangements to notify and take care of his family, as well as to replace him in employment.

All the while Belle blamed herself for not being with the team during the mission, feeling it may not have gone down the way it had if she had only been there. Still, she told no one of her self recriminations, just took care of business while smiling and keeping morale up while things got back to normal. The newcomer, Volodja Uljanov, was kept on the aircraft and had one of Dr. Orion's assistants and one of Atticus' guards by his side at all times, and Belle was notified when he was awake and coherent, whereupon she immediately came to converse with him.

Belle sat down next to him by his bed, smiled prettily with her pearly whites, as she looked at him with wide blue eyes, introducing herself cheerfully with her southern drawl as she swiped her blond bangs from in front of her eyes with one pale hand while offering to shake his with her other one, "Hi y'all! My name is Belle Starr! Darn glad you survived our little shindig! I understand your name is Volo-dee-jay Ul-jan-off... Sorry, that name is a mouthful to say! Mind if I just call you Volo? Thank you kindly! Now, just what were you doing on our little aircraft, hmmm? Then tell me your life story! I got time and you aren't going anywhere soon!"

Belle then laughed melodically, tilting her attractive freckled face as she waited expectantly for him to answer.