Titans - March of Progress

Looking around in horror, Kasui gulped. The laboratory she had just arrived in was of a decent size and was filled by dozens of tanks that were occupied by creatures and people. Whatever the malformed beings were, they all looked to be either dead or unconscious, all twisted or curled into a variety of positions that could not be normal for a standard skeletal structure. Many also seemed to have tubes protruding from their bodies as they floated within the tank's fluid, all glowing an eerie blue.

As soon as the elevator came to a halt, Kasui gathered herself, recovering from the initial shock she had suffered and with only a slight hint of hesitation, she darted out of the group of scientists near her and moved further into the lab, making no effort to conceal herself, seeing as she was already invisible.

She stopped and turned around to look at the group of researchers, watching what happened next with a grim expression. Another group of scientists appeared from further inside the lab and approached those waiting on the elevator. There was a quick conversation, a few handshakes and then the apparent leader handed over a clipboard. The two groups swapped places, seemingly changing shifts.

Kasui just stood silently and watched as the elevator shuddered again and started to move back up into the ceiling, taking the outgoing researchers with it.

When the elevator finally disappeared into the shaft in the ceiling, Kasui turned away and began to move through the laboratory, investigating it more thoroughly in search of her objectives, trying to keep her attention away from those bodies in the tanks. She completely ignored the researchers as well, figuring she could deal with them later, simply letting them do their own thing for the time being.

Her gaze was eventually pulled back to the tanks despite her best efforts to keep away from them, and her eyes wandered over the tanks as she walked silently past, each one just making her expression grimmer. Most of the figures were so twisted they could not even be called human any longer. Many of them had tumors or lumps of impossible sizes extruding from their bodies, seemingly all glowing faintly in a myriad of different colors. Kasui lifted a hand over her mouth and had to stop the urge to throw up. She had seen atrocities, and remains of experiments left by the Talmaran countries in her homeland, and yet they didn’t hold a candle to the flame that was what she saw before her now.

She shook her head and turned her gaze to a wall, noticing a long desk and book flanking it. Kasui approached the desk, her expression grim and dark and upon reaching the it, she stooped to look at various short hand notes strewn upon it. All she saw was a bunch of nonsensical writings, and diagrams of the human body and organs, and she just scowled before turning her attention to the book cases. She just moved over to the closest, and looked at the contents. Every shelf was stacked with what looked to be notebooks, and each shelf was dated to a month. Looking over the shelves she could see tags going back ten years at the least. Looking for a recent date, she selected a random notebook from this month, and pulled it from the shelf. She opened it, letting it hang in the air visible. She could not see her hand holding it, but that was normal for her and she was used to it. She knew her body.

Reading over some of the notes in the book, she flipped between pages, getting the gist of what the book was. It was a summary, or a log of a day in the lab, and various outcomes or tests performed on a number of subjects. Kasui moved her gaze through the pages, until she found what she had dreaded to find. A log of Item Thirty Two. Great. The note described observations of an individual following an experiment, and was fairly basic. 'Subject shows no change to previous observations. Continues to glare, and not communicate in any manner'.

Placing the book back in the shelf, Kasui turned towards another book case and the tagged shelves. Each one was tagged with a number, from one to seventy two, though the last twenty shelves were empty. So she focused on those that were not empty, and looked for one that said thirty two. Finding, it, she raised a brow, seeing the shelf packed full with notebooks, where each of the other shelves had maybe two or three. This shelf had dozens. She picked one up randomly, and flicked it open to the front. The opening page literally had Item Thirty Two written as a heading. This was what she wanted.

Kasui slipped a hand around to her back and pulled her shoulder bag around, and opened it. Then she just started grabbing the note books from the thirty two shelf, and stuffing them into the bag, trying to place them strategically so they would all fit. There was a lot, and the bag would be close to bursting, as well as heavy, but she had little choice here. Stuffing the last of the notebooks into the bag, Kasui straightened up just as she heard a shuffling behind her. She turned fast and saw the obese researcher only meters away, his nose buried in a clipboard. She froze even as he seemed to sense something and looked up. He stared straight at her and her heart leapt into her throat as his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in evident surprise. Surely, he could not see her.

"What the hell. Where did the books go...? Did Ernst move them?” he muttered to himself and actually started to move forward. With a jolt Kasui realized he must have looked straight through her and seen the empty shelf that had previously been brimming with notebooks.

Kasui stepped away from him and to the side, letting him walk past her and moved away, starting to survey the tanks in the lab once more. She guessed Item Thirty Two was in one of the tanks, going from the daily logs, so now she just had to find it. As she moved through the tanks, she looked only at their name plates, seeing various numbers, but not the one she sought. Hearing murmuring, she looked to her right, and saw the other two researchers, standing before a tank, looking up into it.

As she approached the remaining two researchers, Kasui caught some inaudible words from them as they murmured quietly whilst reading over the clipboard they had received from the outgoing team. She came to a stop on their left and just looked at the tanks name plate. Subject Thirty Two. Go figure. So, she looked up into the tank, and took in the subjects visage. A young man, or perhaps a late teen floating unsupported in the tanks iridescent fluid. She frowned as she took in his scrawny visage, like he had been starved. She could see his ribcage and his joints. It was... unnerving to say the least. It reminded her of her home during a famine. Frowning though, Kasui noticed bands wrapped around the figures wrists, ankles and neck, and squinting she noticed stones set into them. Even in the fluid, she knew what they were. Obsidian stones that blocked the use of magic in their immediate vicinity. She took a step back quickly, lest she inadvertently step into their range.

It was then when Kasui noticed something that set the hair on her neck standing. The figure in the tank was looking at her, his eyes open wide, and bright. She stared right back at him. Surely he can't see me... That's absurd. Even the Unions best casters can't detect me. She just stared right back, sort of frozen, unsure what was going on.

"Do you see that Chelle? He is looking at something. How unusual. I wonder what has changed?" came a question from the elderly researcher, and Kasui snapped her gaze back to the two researchers on feet from her, now turning to look in her direction.

"Interesting. It looks like he thinks something is there" Chelle stated and took a single step towards Kasui.

Kasui backed off slightly as the elderly man lifted a hand and moved it in front of him, trying to grasp the air, even as Chelle stopped moving.

"This is new. We should get some guards down here right? And a caster. That's protocol right?" Chelle asked, slipping her clipboard under her armpit.

"Yes, it is. Go ring the bell. Or get Bart to. He was at the station I think" the elderly man ordered, and Chelle turned. Kasui just widened her eyes. "Fuck fuck fuck, time to act. No going back now.

Stopping her movement, Kasui reached down to her right thigh, and drew her ten inch long knife, wrapping it in magic as well as it slid from the sheath. She had practiced enough with the blade when it was invisible for it to feel like an extension of her arm, and so knowing her range, Kasui lifted the blade and simply lunged forward, the point of the knife slamming forward right into the elderly man's left eye socket. She felt it grate along bone and pierce the soft tissue of his eye and brain. He was dead before he knew what had happened. She ripped the blade back, feeling it saw along the man’s socket as it exited his skull.

She swung her knife backwards, a line of blood flying from its tip and splattering on the ground even as she turned to Chelle who stood stuck to the ground half turned away from Kasui as her companion collapsed to the floor. His skull slapped against the ground, eliciting a brutal crack even as Kasui advanced on the woman quickly. She only had an instant.

Chelle seemed to recover from her shock though and staggered backwards, a shrill scream erupting from her in terror. Chelle likely could not believe what she had just seen. To her, all she would have seen was one moment the elderly man grasping the air, and the next moment, a spurt of blood from his eye socket right before he collapsed to the ground.

Grimacing at the scream, Kasui positioned her blade on an angle pointing up as she stepped in fast, her left hand reaching out to grab the woman by the throat to cut off that scream even as the knife was slammed upwards in a practiced and pinpoint accurate motion. She felt the knife slide between Chelle's ribs and stab into the woman’s heart, a soft gurgle coming from the woman at the pain she would have felt. Kasui ripped the blade backwards and then let go of Chelle, letting her collapse to the ground, dying or already dead. She did not care.

As the woman lay there twitching in her own blood, Kasui leant down and wiped her knife on the woman's coat, in a careless and callous attitude. She looked up then, gazing into the tank that had held the researcher’s attention. She had to deal with that later. For now, there was Bart. So she turned away from the tank and ran, aiming for the work stations even as a bell started to ring loudly from somewhere. She locked eyes on the man, standing next to a pull rope that ran to the ceiling and a hole. Shit, that's an alarm. Things gonna get dicey.

Without a moment’s hesitation she advanced on him as he stood there pale faced and yanking that rope even as his gaze flitted before him in panic. Kasui reached him, coming to a halt as her left hand shot straight up and around the side of the man's head to grab his right ear. Kasui yanked his head to the side sharply exposing the left side of his neck as her right hand came around with that knife in it. She sliced the weapon straight across his throat with not a single bit of resistance.

The man let out a stifled sound of surprise, the attack having come so quickly that he probably would not have even had time to register the act. Kasui let go of him and stepped back as the man dropped his clipboard and the bell rope, both hands going to his throat. He stumbled around a few moments, horror on his face as he tried to see his killer. Nothing but a gurgle escaped him as he saw no one, not even the blade that had slit his throat. Spurts of blood ran down his hands and pure white coat marking him in the color of death. He just slumped forward, the life leaving his body and would have crashed to the floor had Kasui not grabbed his large frame and guided him to the ground before wiping her blade on his coat. He just lay there twitching slightly as a pool of blood started to form under his rotund frame.

Kasui remained expressionless and cold, indifferent to the deaths she had just orchestrated, just as the researchers most likely were to all the malformed creatures around the lab. After a few moments, she turned away from the corpse and made her way back to the tank with her objective in it. She came to a halt in front of it, and stared at the youth, seeing a faint smile on his lips. A shiver ran down her spine.

For a few moments Kasui just stood there, her mind racing as she thought about how the hell she was going to get out of here with the young man as she doubted he could walk. She just rolled her shoulders and slid her knife back into its sheath even as she turned around and looked to the area that the elevator was. Going off what the elderly researcher had said, she surmised guards would be arriving soon. At least the elevator could be used to escape. But carrying the youth was going to be a pain. So first things first. Kasui turned back to the tank and stepped backwards, with a deep breath followed by exhalation of breath, she summoned a surge of magic. Releasing the gathered energy, she blew a hole in the tank.

The fluid of the tank cascaded from the hole, spilling out and over the floor, washing away the blood of Kasui's victims. The youth just now lay in the empty tank completely motionless, limbs sticking out at strange angles, his head turned away from her. Scowling, Kasui turned to the dead elderly scientist and peeled his lab coat off him, sodden with the tank’s fluid. Then she just dropped her magic from her as she reached into the tank and grabbed the youth by his arm, awkwardly yanking him along its floor towards the edge.

Dropping the coat down on the ground, she then pulled the youth out of the tank, letting him flop down onto the floor of the lab into the coat, his body smacking into the cold wet ground. She gritted her teeth knowing she didn’t have the time to make sure he wasn’t busted up by the impact or broken glass. As he lay there, now on his back, his eyes seemed to lock onto her and his mouth seemed to work, rivulets of liquid coming from the corners of his mouth. Kasui jolted into action and just turned him onto his side and opened his mouth. The tanks fluid came from him, and he coughed and spluttered.

"How the hell did you not drown?" she muttered to herself as she looked at the obsidian stones now. They were a problem. She would not be able to use magic around him.

"Gotta do something about these stones now. Don't try anything. I am here to get you out. If you have been wearing those stones for a while you shouldn't be able to speak anyway" she stated, unsure if the youth may try to attack her or not. Never knew. So she looked at the cuffs and collar, seeing they had keyholes. So, stooping down, she pulled her bag around again, and fishing through the books she had stashed, she found her lockpicking set. She set to work, and after a few moments she got the cuff off the right wrist. Then the left. As she was working on the left ankle, she heard the elevator start to rumble and her heart skipped a beat.

"Shit shit shit" she muttered as she got the cuff on the ankle off, the the right. Lastly the one around the neck came off, and she stashed her tools away right before picking up the motionless youth, and hoisting him over her left shoulder, eyes widening at how light he was. He couldn't have weighed thirty kilos. Settling him into a comfortable position, she moved over to a tank not far from the elevator and pulled on her magic, bending light around both of them. Making him invisible as well took effort and she focused. She only had so much magic and would be unable to mask them both for long. She was definitely working on a clock now.

Kasui waited silently, crouched down by the tank, more out of habit then necessity what with her ability to remain unseen, and just watched the elevator descend, finally reaching a level where it passed beneath the ceiling, revealing the legs, and then torso's and heads of a dozen armed guards, all pointing outwards around a man in the middle who had both hands raised and seemed to be murmuring. Kasui scowled as she saw a shimmer of energy around the group, surmising that the man in the middle must have been a caster of some high caliber and was projecting a barrier around the soldiers.

As soon as the elevator reached the floor, the armed guards stepped off the platform, yet remained motionless, their muskets lifted but pointed at nothing. Kasui scowled, wondering just what they were doing. Were they waiting for something? It was then that one of the guards stepped forward and looked around. Following his gaze, Kasui saw him looking at the two researchers by the shattered tank.

"Researchers are down. Looks like Thirty Two's tank is shattered. On guard lads. The prince is gonna be pissed. Aim for the legs" he stated and stepped back into the group as a tense nervousness seemed to wash over the group.

Kasui rolled her jaw, not liking her chances of getting out of here in one piece. She had faced worse situations though, so she sucked in a breath and slowly stood up. She poured more magic into her invisibility, burning through her reserves yet making sure to completely erase both her and the youth from sight. Then she simply started walking forward, not a sound escaping her.

It was a bold move, but she felt fighting would not get her anywhere. As she approached the group, she could practically feel the nervousness among the guards. Many had eyes that flitted around the poorly lit-up laboratory. The place was essentially a cavern with lamps placed everywhere, creating eerie shadows, so was definitely nightmarish. And they could not see an enemy anywhere. So that probably compounded their fears.

She stepped past the guards though, walking straight through their formation without a care in the world. The caster in the center had dropped his arms and was no longer speaking or maintaining a barrier, and Kasui could sense uncertainty from him also. She looked at the mage, a brow perked. He was tall, well built, if not lanky and was sporting a short blonde beard and a long blonde ponytail that he wore over his left shoulder. If he wasn’t an enemy, she may have even thought him handsome.

"Sir, the hell is this. There is no one here" one of the guards spoke out, his voice strained and Kasui turned her mind away from playful thoughts.

"Yeah, well, there was no one here when the scientists died either. Only Thirty Two and his now busted tank. He is fucking dangerous so stay alert. We are not alone" stated the mage as he pulled a strange crystal from his belt and lifted it to his face. He muttered something and the crystal lit up in a brilliant red light. Then he just threw it out into the lab, the thing hovering in the air as a warm glow pulsated from it, lighting up a vast area of the lab even more. Kasui perked her brow, not having seen that sort of magic before.

"Lets start searching. Groups of two. Scream if you find something" the caster let out and moments later, the guards split off in pairs, walking around the room. As she was left alone on the elevator, Kasui just looked straight up the shaft, a frown forming as she thought about how she could get out of this predicament. At least the youth should not be able to speak right now, so could not reveal her.