Bug Hunt: M Industries

[The Golden Witch]

M Industries had been under surveillance since the time travel incident. X-Corp had reported a break in earlier in the night in the lobby area but hadn't come up with anything and written it off as vandals or the homeless.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel walked into the lobby, looking for signs of where the prisoner might be.

[The Golden Witch]

Sitting on the lobby desk, a single terminal had been turned on. The wallpaper featured a golden butterfly on a field of black.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Cautiously, Rachel approached the terminal.

[The Golden Witch]

Underneath the butterfly in a very tiny font the words "upstairs" had been written.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel went over to the staircase and, before she started to head up it, used her power to try to tell if anything was waiting for her on it.

[The Golden Witch]

She could feel an alien presence that Rachel would be able to easily identify as Nina's probes.

At the top of the stairs a body swung from a long cable. Pinned to it's chest was a medical textbook page concerning spinal injuries. The word "death" had been circled.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel tried to slip past the body, using her telepathy, and familiarity with Nina, to (hopefully) avoid the probes.

[The Golden Witch]

A large probe stood hunched over at the top of the stairs. It clicked briefly but otherwise completely ignored Rachel.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel went through the door at the top of the stairs, still reaching out with her mind to feel what was ahead of her.

[The Golden Witch]

Rachel could feel the hostage and the egg in one of the industrial areas ahead. With her abilities she could get an idea of what was inside the egg. It seemed to be a lot like Nina's usual probes, but it had a more parasitic structure. It also was emitting a soft psychic signal.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel started trying, gently, to shut down the contents of the egg.

[The Golden Witch]

The egg stirred briefly and sent a psychic spike out towards Rachel, desperately struggling to stop itself from being killed.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel's avatar wrapped up the spike in a tendril of webbing, and continued to try to kill the contents of the egg.

[The Golden Witch]

It struggled for awhile but it was weak and it's abilities fairly minor. Soon Rachel got the upper hand and managed to completely destroy it's nervous system from the inside.

[Lucy Grant]

Meanwhile, an oblivious Lucy was rather morosely humming some song or other and trying not to cry.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Once the thing was dead, Rachel hurried over to where Lucy was tied up. "I'm Nomic, and I'm here to save you." she said "Are you ok?"

[Lucy Grant]

Lucy's lip quivered as she looked up at Rachel. "Nina's mom is mean," she whimpered.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Nina's mom?" Rachel asked as she untied Lucy.

[Lucy Grant]

"That blonde lady," Lucy sniffed. "She looked kinda like Nina but older and all sneaky-eyed looking and was all 'ooh, I'm going to poke you with this! Ha ha, it has a drug in it and now I'm going to tie you up next to this weird pulsing thing that looks really gross and leave you in a dark room!'"

[Rachel O'Brien]

"That is...interesting." Rachel said, as she finished untying the knots "Ok, I've got you untied. Can you walk?"

[Lucy Grant]

Lucy nodded, doing her best to not look like a little lost puppy that's been kicked a few times as she stood up and started following Rachel around.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Stay close to me." Rachel said, kindly, taking her hand "We'll get out of here and back to the school."

[The Golden Witch]

The probe was still waiting down the hall, looking a bit antsy.

[Lucy Grant]

Lucy squealed in fear when she saw it. "Kill it with fire!"

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel gave the probe a short, sharp and very final psychic kick. "Bitch, please." she said, as she kicked the now useless probe down the stairs.

[The Golden Witch]

The probe died with a whimper.

[Lucy Grant]

Lucy blinked. "Or kick it," she allowed quietly.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"I killed it with my brain." Rachel said, allowing herself a small smirk.

[Lucy Grant]

"Your brain works better than fire," Lucy allowed, looking a little squeamish as they went around the probe.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Thank you." Rachel said as they headed out the door.