9600/Phantom Of The Danger Room 2: Electric Boogaloo

Phantom Of The Danger Room 2: Electric Boogaloo
Date of Scene:	12 January 2022
Location:	Danger Room
Synopsis:	Noriko's 'curiosity' in the Danger Room's simulation software leaves her up a tree in a primordial swamp-like forest until she is hunted down by Jubilation...so to speak. Noriko is saved from her regrets and Jubes gets a shock.
Cast of Characters:	Noriko Ashida, Jubilation Lee

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Noriko Ashida has posed:
The lower sub-levels of the school house all sorts of extremely valuable technology.  Sure, Noriko has been allowed to come down here and discharge, but she only uses it for emergencies only.  In her mind, the longer she fiddles with tech, the bigger the chance it'll end up fried and she'll be working off the damage like some kind of indentured servant.  Money is one thing, but being forced to do chores which keep her in one spot or not being able to use her super speed due to the nature of the tasks teachers tend to like to put her on, she'd rather pass.

So it's safe to say Noriko did not intend to dial up a swamp with giant primordial trees.  It's like everything is bigger.  The leaves, the grass blades.  Did she Honey I Blew Up the Environment?  Did she tap into some teacher's fantasy program?  Right now, she is somehow on a limb, her feet swinging as she sits on a limb, surveying down below.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The natural beauty of this primordial forest comes from the bright beams of moonlight that manage to make it through the trees. The night comes to life with the chattering of insects, distant howls, and, well, something else entirely. Something sinister. Down below, there's a hint of movement, just like the tease of the the opening scene of Jurassic Park, as leaves sway and shift, as though being displaced by some unseen monster. The movement settles a few hundred yards forward, off in an verdant clearing, one that has fallen victim to urdu overgrowth. There's absolutely something down there, stirring underneath those leaves. What is it? When will it move? When will it strike?

    A vague impression that something just zipped across the clearing might be noticed. Just, a tease of light being displaced a little, like someone just blew out a candle and ran across the room with it. Something is here and it's hunting speedsters...

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko has been up in the tree long enough to notice some of the many signs of creatures like some giant nest in a branch only 20 feet (according to her perspective) away.  What's in there?  What's coming back?  What might be waking up and stretching its back, legs, claws, aaaaugh?  "It's like I'm some crunchy worm.  Maybe if I get eaten it will reset...Maybe this is just like some childhood memory of Bird-dude's."  She squints and tries to get a peek of the stars to see if any formations are familiar...as if she retained any of that crap beyond the tests.

The sudden stirring of leaves gets the speedster's attention, but her eyes dart this way and that for movement, since her hearing isn't anything but human.  She blinks and squints at the near optical illusion.  She's not used to not being able to spot things in full view and when one lights up like Tinkerbell, darkness is not your friend...but it is this predator's, she thinks.  Eyes narrow as she ruminates for a hair of a moment, legs ceasing their swinging back and forth like tasty little blood gogurt packs.

"Probably a bad idea to be a sitting duck."  Probably a bad idea to be talking to yourself while you're being hunted Noriko, but these things seem like they shouldn't have large consequences in a speedster's mind.  She pushes herself up slowly, clearly not used to such heights, overcorrecting with her balance before stiffening up, knees bent.

Nori could try to make a flying leap for the nest.  She could try bouncing off the end of a branch, or grab one of these things hanging down she hopes is a vine, but even that's a bit of a jump.

Or she could always just hug the trunk for dear life and hope she can skid down without falling off, and while running straight down the side of one of these trunks might actually be an option for the speedster, it certainly isn't something that comes to mind.

"Look!  If you're some mating fantasy or something?!  I'm not into it!  I don't even know how I-"  Noriko sighs, shaking her head before she checks her charge level on her gauntlets.  Then she jumps up to grab hold of a small twig like branch the side of a torch for her, breaking it on her way back down to the tree limb.  She cups the end of it with her gauntlet and CRACK ZAP!  Blue light erupts like a big EAT ME sign in the dark.  She holds her gauntlet there till...

"OW!"  Yep it's on fire, she thinks, and then throws it down below, watching at super speed as the light illuminates the trunk on its way to the ground.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    That was a bad move. Or a really good move, depending on perspective! Fire has been at the cornerstone of human history, it gives, it takes, it offers a velvety hug of warmth. But, it's not something that all of this planet's inhabitants have come to appreciate. Some of them, like the beast that stalks Noriko Ashida, can't stand it even a little. As soon as the torch hits the ground, the dried leaves and twigs piled against the trunk ignite and begin to slowly crackle into embers. A sound, the reaction of someone -- or something -- down there, puts an abrupt end to whatever peace might be enjoyed.

    A deafening screech echoes throughout the forest, a final warning from some feral animal about to attack. It's a bestial reaction drawn out by an instinctive hatred of fire. When the noise stops and its final echoes disappear into the forest, the only sounds that remain are the gentle whispers of a breeze passing through. The insects, the animals, and anything else that might be around have all fallen silent.

    The hints of motion start to get more obvious as the large leaves and bushes get aggressively moved, stomped, and displaced. Something is moving. Something fast. Something strong.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Let there be light!" Noriko says triumphantly at chipmunk-speed when the fire takes hold, and just as quickly, "Shit."  Her only defense environmentally might have been this height.  She doesn't know this territory and maybe this creature does.  Maybe it lives here.  Maybe it RUNS UP THE TRUNKS TO LAY EGGS IN NESTS.  Maybe it does so to steal them!  Hmm.

If anything, she definitely just pissed this thing off.  "Oops."  Then she grins and breaks off another 'twig.'  When the shriek stops, Noriko takes off, fast, a nervous start like she expects the creature to be able to pounce on her at any moment.  This is it.  This is how she's going to die.  Eaten by something in the Danger Room.  Feet pound bark for a few paces before she launches off toward the nest like some second-rate Lara Croft on crack, the sole of her shoe scraping some bark off to fall below to the growing pyromaniac's dream.

"SHIIIIIT!" Noriko wiggles her arms as she sails through the air like a flea.  Is she going to make it?  Yeah.  No problem.  But she's also headed straight for one of the oversized eggs.  Instinctively, she balls herself up and tucks her head for impact.

CRACK-SPLOOSH!

Noriko trashes about, suspended in goo, unable to see through the protein rich fluid to the surface like someone trapped under ice.  Some of that goo begins to seep out and down into the nest, dripping its way down as it rides the force of gravity.

Something else hears the sounds of twigs breaking and grasses stirring, and how can anyone not hear all that ruckus!  A squall pierces the night like a battle cry, but it's further off.  The smoke and fire seems to be driving some wildlife away and some towards.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!  Worrying about such things is a luxury.  Worrying about that thing freaking out below is now a luxury.  Suddenly Nori wonders if she's able to hold her breath for longer at velocity or slowed down?  If she discharges what will happen?  It's so dark in this egg...  It's so groooooss.  She tries to stab overhand at the wall of the egg with her 'twig.'

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The light provided by the fire on the ground starts to get smaller and smaller, dimmer and dimmer, as it struggles to find fresh, dry fuel to keep itself going. From one of the nearby shadows, a cloud of sand is kicked, snuffing out that torch once and for all. Whatever is hunting Noriko is not only fast and scary, but also intelligent. It's not some animal. It's Jubilee.

    Jubilee steps out of the shadows, moonlight illuminating her face so it's plainly obvious to anyone not stuck in an egg. The game is over. Jubilation turns her head rapidly, up, down, left, right. Where... did she go? That smell, that wonderful smell of hair dye and electricity, is gone. Jubes tilts her head back and squints, staring up at the enormous tree and the last spot Noriko was tracked to. She closes her eyes tightly and balls her hands into two fists and then....starts flapping her arms. "Damn it!" she scowls after opening her eyes and realizing that she hasn't, in fact, transformed into a bat like her kind are famous for.

    "This was fun like a minute ago..."

    With that sentiment hanging in the air, Jubilation suddenly blurs into some seriously impressive vampire parkour. She leaps from branch to branch, swinging on vines, running across horizontal branches, and leaping to catch higher branches so she can flip up onto them. It's like the world's largest assortment of gymnastics equipment. Other than the bark and the twigs and the sap, she's in her element.

    Jubilation crouches on a branch and reaches up to touch her cheek. Wait. That's not sap. Sap isn't yellow and opaque and yolky. "Gross!" she exclaims before looking up and squinting again. Another blob of yolk falls, striking Jubes on the cheek. This one has a piece of shell in it... "UGH!"

    High above, the bottom of that oversized egg that might be keeping Noriko Ashida safe from what hunts her, starts to crack underneath her...

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Was it yolk?  Definitely.  No mistaking it.  Maybe from the dud next to Nori's egg.  Maybe from hers.  Noriko thinks fast when she hears the strange muffled cracking noise.  She uses something beside her for leverage to try and reposition upside down.  Must be the egg wall.  Whatever she's trying to do involves her sparking up her gauntlet just enough to try and help the crack without setting a fire.  It's just enough though to see some kind of something behind her over her shoulder which she doesn't pay attention to because the electricity is backfiring, cooking up the fluid and turning it into jagged veins of whites like some kind of caulk-lightning gun.  She kicks the egg wall.  No...not the egg wall.  If she's working on the egg wall, what is that...that shadow behind her?  That she's kicking?

Now it's Noriko's time to shriek at the giant bird fetus just blindly staring down at her like an alien mummy ready to sprout.  A blast of electricity erupts from her body as she kicks out blindly at the monstrous thing.  The egg shatters immediately, the fetus is properly defibbed, and Noriko suddenly finds herself clinging to the abomination when she feels the sensation of falling, only to realize it is doing nothing.  At super-speed, in mid-air, she kicks frantically at the thing at first, but then realizes it could break her fall!  Reverse mid-air scramble!  Too bad she doesn't have little glider wings or something.  She's not even sure that would help.  Oh yeah I can breathe now...But she just inhales more goo and...well.  Being coated in a sack of goo explains why everything is still blurry.

In the immediate panic of still not being able to breathe and falling to her impending death (or second life in this weird game, she's not sure), she keeps sparking like an epileptic's nightmare.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The oversize egg, with its gooey payload and speedster prisoner, plummets towards the ground at a dizzying speed. It crashes through the tendrils of countless tree branches, causing its trajectory to ping pong laterally, bouncing and shifting against each layer of the vegetation. As it descends, the egg begins to pick up speed and shed away chunks of shell, leaving them behind bit by bit as it falls through the branches and leaves of the massive trees.

    Jubilation stares upwards, squinting at that object that seems to be coming towards her at a dizzying speed. She doesn't need any assistance to see it in the darkness, but the sparking inside that shines through the shell is enough of a confirmation she needs. "Nori!"

    The egg is running out of altitude and Noriko is running out of that protective shell, piece by piece! Jubilee takes off, running down the length of the thick branch she's balanced on before leaping across to another on an adjacent tree. Another look upwards, another jump, more balancing, more running. Look up. Another branch. Up. Branch. Up. Up. Down. Down. Left. Right. Left. Right.

    Noriko comes to a sudden halt, sending splatters of yolk and shell in every direction. As soon as the speedster lands her arms, Jubilee's eyes widen as the electrical current flows through her body!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
This is how I die, cooking an egg inside out, with this fetus monster, suffocating before impact...all for nothing.  Not in the apocalypse, not holding the one she loves, never having given her brother the taste of freedom or self, or asking Jubilation the one question burning a hole in her chest.  The sorrow deepens further when she realizes she will be leaving Jubilation alone for eternity...forever separated.  A great pang of sorrow suddenly invades Jubilation right before impact.  It's hard to say when given how fast the speedster processes things.  But she hangs in those moments longer, even if it will only prolong her suffering, the burning in her lungs she endures like some ascetic monk yearning for enlightenment in final moments if only to remember the times her and Jubilation have had as her body crackles with pure energy.

THWUMP!  BUZZZZZ!  Noriko just feels something rigid and knows she's alive.  Her vision is still blurred from the light reflecting through the goo and sack she's been fighting that is now sucking to her face and body after all the fluid and yolk splattered.  She tears wildly at the sack with her ineffective gauntlets once or twice and then shoots a big concentrated blast that gives her an opening to tear open, gasping and coughing and choking and still crackling as she suddenly realizes almost instantaneously (for Jubilation) that she's frying her girlfriend.  There's a brief reactive burst and then suddenly Noriko absorbs all the energy back into herself.  To most, it just looked like someone snuffed out a plasma ball.  "I'm-sorry-I'm-sorry-you're-okay-you're-okay," she reaches up to place her gauntlets on Jubilation's cheeks, which, perhaps she didn't think through that that's about as comforting as someone putting electrodes for electro shock therapy on someone's temples.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    For a few long moments, Jubilation remains motionless. She stares blankly, her eyes locked with whatever might be behind Noriko by several hundred feet, her vision falling out of focus. But then she moves... by releasing Noriko and falling to the ground. She lies there, motionless, as dead as anyone ever has been before. She's completely still, just staring blankly up at the dark sky. If she's just playing dead, which is a relatively easy feat for her to do, it's an awfully cruel joke. But then...

    "Ahhhhhhh!" Jubilation screams, suddenly sitting up. She blinks a couple of times, blink blink, and looks around. Thin wisps of smoke dance playfully off the ends of her hair. Blink blink. Jubes sits, dazed, before reaching up to smooth out her hair and cover her face with it. "That /sucked/...." She turns.

    "Why are you in the Danger Room!?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
For Noriko, time seems to stand still.  Instinctively she somehow lands on her feet when released and then is down at Jubilation's side.  She will have no memory of how she did that, however minorly remarkable it is.  That blank, dead stare chills Noriko to the depths of her soul and springs a torrent of tears as the gooey girl throws herself across Jubilation. Anyone looking on might find the sped up hysterics laughable if they could process them that quickly, but for Noriko's part, she has no idea how much time has passed.  It feels like forever.  Jubilation is gone and it's her fault.

Only the scream pierces through Nori's wracking sobs, causing the speedster to withdraw her contact as quickly as she advanced, afraid she might blow this stroke of luck, favor, whatever.  What comes out first is lightning fast babble that suddenly stops. Then, "Fuck.  I'm so sorry...I-I wanted to figure out how the simulation worked.  Are you okay?"  She wants to rip off her gauntlets and hold Jubes, but the look in her eyes shows she doesn't trust herself while she's still breathing like a hummingbird.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay..." Jubilee mutters, her voice hoarse and tired. It sounds like this one took a lot out of her, or was somehow more difficult than the rest. "I just, kinda, went away for a second, there..." She shakes her head a little, almost like she's trying to rattle something loose. Jubilee just might stand, really she might, but what she actually does is entirely unprovoked.

    "Don't... Come... In here.... Without someone... I..." Each word is broken up by a kiss, planted quickly, desperately, somewhere on Noriko's face and mouth, each one in a slightly different spot. "...I don't know what I....would....do." Jubes, by now, has climbed onto Noriko, just pressing her there on the ground, sharing in the primordial goop that was once in that egg. "...Don't... ever. Ever..." Pause.

    "...Gross." She blinks a couple of times before looking down at herself, sticky with egg mess. "Let's... let's get the heck out of here, Nori. Before someone sees us. Or /worse/!...Smells us..."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko never says no to kisses, never slips away.  Why would she?  How could she?  She's still recovering from the yoyo ride of Jubes dying and coming back to life again, this time before her eyes...at least she thinks so.  "I'm-sorry....I'm-sorry," she keeps repeating between kisses and words and goop.

Does Noriko promise not to come in alone again?  No, but she's not thinking about doing it either.  She's just thinking about Jubilation and how relieved she is that she didn't burst her into flames.

"Yeah, like the mom of whatever that freak abomination was," or that Noriko imagined.  She's not sure at this point.  It hardly matters, but might matter later when she's dreaming.  Noriko suddenly smirks and suddenly they are on their feet.  Reluctantly, Noriko lets go of Jubilation and then does a blurry spin, whirling a little of the goop off of her and sack in the process.

"I think I owe you a ride," Nori says with a fond grin, knowing Jubilation must be exhausted at the very least.  It's a phrase uttered for the vampire's pride before the speedster scoops her up in her arms for the dash back to their apartment.