Zeke's Story

It takes a while, but the facility is soon put on yellow alert, the upper level is sealed from the rest of the facility with all but civilian authority allowed. Armed guards and engineers are being sent down in hopes to restore the generators to full capacity. Focus is being put higher than normal on the high security floors leaving the moderate security floors feeling emptier than usual.

In the high security floors (11-14)

While the staff is scrambling to contain the escaped subject, a lone critter begins walking by the cells, slightly bigger than a cat... walking on its forelegs like a circus act is a weird raccoon holding a keycard in its hind feet. It appears to be grunting a small tune. As it goes along it catches the attention of Zeke, face pressed against the window of his cell, his arms restrained in a straitjacket.

"What the hell is going on around here?!" He says, kneeing the cell door fruitlessly. "And... what the hell is that!?"

The raccoon tumbles over and lays there on the ground staring at him. His eye twitches as he stares back at the animal, then he notices the card.

"Hey! You are not authorized to carry that!" He pauses for a moment then slowly pokes his foot through the food port of his cell door and speaks more calmly, grinning. "Gimme and I'll say nothing about this breach of security."

The raccoon slowly starts to scoot away from the door.

"Noo! I'm sorry! For scaring you, that is." His tone quickly turns to begging. "C'mon, we can work together, you and me, Zeke and the giant dirty rat thing."

The raccoon squints its eyes, obviously not too happy with his comment and dusts itself off then holds its arms out then starts to crawl off. Zeke sighs and thumps his head against the door, groans falling down to the floor with his mouth to the food port and then begins to speak more desperately and forced.

"Baby, please! Don't you see how I yearn for you in my life!?" He begs in the most horrific attempt at being suave. "Oh if I was to name an astral body after something, I'd name it after... you!"

The raccoon at this point just plants its face in its four paws and turns around, climbs up the door and runs the card across the scanner then whacks him across the head and motions for the pathetic nutjob to come along. He pops himself up onto his feet and follows the raccoon along, stumbling about like a drunk as he does.

"Gotta be the new meds, anytime now I'll wake up..." He mutters looking around at the cells, then notices his arms are still bound. "Hey could you... nevermind, I'll work it out eventually. Where are we going anyways?"

Still creeping along cell, after cell, Zeke continues to blindly follow the strange raccoon. His cloudy mind is slowly putting things together as the medication begins to lose effect. He was released from his cell by what is seeming less and less like a hallucination. Hallucinations cannot open doors, therefor it must be a dream. However hitting the floor sure hurt like it was real so he must be awake. That would mean... would mean... this is real? And the eyes of the creature, so nostalgic. So... as he tries to drowsily put everything together he sees that the raccoon has stopped at a cell door. He slowly raises his head and reads the subject number.

"GNS-088..." He mutters as he begins to go into tunnel vision, but it is not the drugs this time. He watches as the raccoon starts climbing the door with the keycard in its lower set of front legs. The sound of classical can be heard, muffled, from inside. Then a stirring can be heard, the music stops, replaced by something pressing up against the windowless reinforced and airtight cell door.

"Good girl, Skitters, and you've made a friend as well, extravagant!" Speaks a strange yet eloquent female voice from within the cell. "Mister Ezekiel, we have much to catch up on."

Ezekiel begins to back away from the cell, sluggishly, his body feels heavy. Memories of excruciating pain begin to flood back, worse than any experiment that had been conducted on his body, no, it was more like his soul itself was on the dissection table. As the cell opens, a pair of violet eyes, only almost human meet with his, pupils within them an S shape that quickly dilates into an 8. He falls backwards, shaking himself some from his daze and mustering enough strength to burn through his jacket. Blue fire spurts forth causing the raccoon to recoil and hide behind the figure, but they begin walking forward.

"Ezekiel..." The voice beckons, Zeke grits his teeth, fight or flight, and he's chosen the former.

"You ain't getting in my head again you monster!" As the figure gets in range he lunges at her, his hand ablaze with blue fire. He feels, if he lands just one blow he may have a chance, he may have... may... he's stopped in place. "What..?"

Wrapped in a series of tendrils, his arms and legs are completely restricted, and regardless of any attempt to struggle, the grip it has is much stronger. And then as he looks forward, all he sees now is eyes staring back.

"I'll make everything better." She says in a soft tone, but it still feels... inhuman. "Just take care of father, okay?"

Before he could make another attempt to get free, he feels an impact upon the back of his head and begins to black out. He can vaguely hear as his hearing fails one last thing other than the clash of his body against the metal floor. The creature's voice muttering something.

"...sorry..."

Moments later he awakens with his head feeling... something. A blank expression on his face, his skin pale and breathing shallow. And there's something in his hand. The keycard. He slowly gets up and begins heading towards the elevator, at this point he didn't care about much else, he just wanted to go up and out of here. He needed no other reason than to get as far away from her as possible. A chime plays as he swipes the keycard over the scanner and he gets in, pressing the button for the surface floor. On its way up the lights in the elevator turn red and the elevator stops, a shriek from deep in the shaft echoes through sending him into a frenzy, clawing at the door, prying it open with all his strength and crawling into the nearest floor. He stops to take a breather. He starts to chuckle softly to himself, running his hand across some carpeting realizing he's on one of the moderate risk floors, floor 8.

"Yeah... YEAH... YEAH!" He chants, trying to build himself up. "Suck it, statistics, I'm out of here."

He gets up, dusts himself off, walks over to the stairwell entrance triumphantly and runs the keycard over the door.

"Yellow alert in effect, voice confirmation required."

"Uh..."

"Voice is of Ezekiel, Status: Aethera Subject Gamma. Access denied."

Defeated by that evil invention known as "technology" he slumps onto the floor.

"Why has fate conspired against me so tragically...?"

The intercoms crackle as a tune plays from them indicating it is from the head of the facility, Dr. Orion Tulner. Him and his apprentice, Hayden Addler, had founded the facility back when it was little more than a hospital. He is known as both a legitimate genius, but also a megalomaniac since the growth of Deep 17 into what it is now.

"All security staff, subjects 1519 and Aethera Gamma have left containment, consider them medium-level risks, standard procedures apply should they turn violent." Tulner's deep voice broadcasts through the entire facility, only a hint of concern in his voice. "Subject GNS-088 'Bas'met' has also left containment and given their necroprogenic nature all research cadavers must be under airtight seals and locate her and any shells she may have acquired."

Zeke stands up and starts walking around looking for another elevator, or anything really. But as he does the sounds of something stirring in the elevator shaft echo forth from the gaping door. He doesn't notice this, however, he's too focused on going to the upper levels to pay it any mind.

"Remember, if you catch a light ammonia scent in the air, that is your cue to check the area immediately." He continues. "If you catch personnel acting strangely, check their eyes, if they are an S or 8 shape then that means the original owner is dead and GNS-088 is using their body."

Zeke checks a staff room and finds a standard security uniform and hat and proceeds to remove his strait jacket in favor of it. He covers as much of himself as possible to try looking like a regular human, his hair especially with the hat helps to some degree.

"Tranquilizers and gassing has no effect at all, but electricity works, just do not try to burn her. Remember, she is very important to my research and I would prefer it if you didn't damage her." His tone conveys some elevated concern, then again he's put a lot of effort into the Genesis project, the creation of new life rather than using human subjects. "Aberration 65 also left containment after the blackout, remember to keep light on him at all times, his... condition... is only triggered by dark places, he's obedient otherwise."

Some rustling of papers and the sound of another person's voice can be heard but not audible enough to be coherent.

"Remember to keep any elevators sealed." He says, his tone growing more severe. "At this rate more problems may arise and we may need to activate the blast seals and gas the lower levels to keep this situation contained."

Zeke begins checking the other rooms for anybody, finding, as expected, much of the security staff absent. He picks up on something, however, what sounds like yelling a level above him. He takes a chair out from a lobby and stands up on it and hits his fist against the ceiling and yells in hopes of using them to assist him.

"Hey! You up there! This is..." He thinks for a moment looking at the card to read the name on it. "This is Hulson, security officer of floor 11 and this damned elevator broke on me and now the scanner is not working right! I'm really having a bad day here and I really REALLY need to report to Orion so... if you can at least unlock this stairwell I'd be very appreciative!"

"Um..." Richard Cree, more well known as Arcee, stared at the wall before him. He scratched his head and turned around, looking at the corridor. "Where am I?" he murmured, staring at the walls. "I don't think I've ever been here before..."

Arcee had been heading to his room, but he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. He didn't recognise where he was at all. A bang resounded down the path, and Arcee jumped at the noise before stilling himself with a nervous chuckle. It was probably an experiment wanting out or something. It probably shouldn't though, considering the announcement that had started just a few seconds ago. taking a deep breath and exhaling, he began to walk, hopefully towards his room.

On the way, Arcee whistled, a soft and soothing tune that calmed the nerves of himself and whoever was listening to it. It helped him restrain from jumping at shadows or worrying about where GNS-088 was. A few minutes later, he gave a mental sigh of relief at the sight of a familiar looking stain on the wall. Good, he was near the elevator. He knew where to go from there... probably. He hadn't really taken the route to remember it so well. Arcee could hear someone too, yelling something about the elevator being broken. Hadn't he heard the announcement? Halting his whistling, he sped up and half-ran, half-walked around the corner.

Someone was standing near the elevator, looking up at what Arcee knew to be the guard screen. He looked to be a guard, which made it even odder that he hadn't been listening to the announcement. Eyebrows creased with worry, Arcee walked over to the guy.

"Um, excuse me?" He called out, a friendly smile on his face. It was a guard, sure, but maybe if he was helpful the guard would tell him how to go back to his room. "I don't think the elevator's going to work. But if you have a problem, maybe I can help out?"

Zeke had set up a ladder and was checking if he could somehow pierce his way through the floor, fruitlessly mind you as he finds steel reinforcement. He grumbles and pecks on it some as if there was any point in it that was not solid steel. This is the longest he's ever had an escape go so the thought of how this can horribly go wrong goes through his mind and that maybe... it would be better if he gave up.

"As if I'd do that." He says, thinking out loud. He rolls his eyes and scratches his chin, considering the option of burning his way through... until he heard a voice addressing him giving him a bit of a shock. "Y-yes! Erm... yeah. Seems Aberration 65 has damaged some of the elevator functions and... hey, you are not staff."

He gets a look at them, the guy isn't a security officer or a doctor, that is for certain, so he must be a subject of some sort. Maybe he's supposed to be out, doesn't look all that dangerous and kinda normal for the most part... but then again, looks are deceiving around here. Another idea rushes into his mind, if he shows an ability to take charge of the situation without breaking everything then maybe he will be an official security... and not end up in the coat and box again.

"That could work, right!?" He says to himself, before realizing he was thinking out loud. "I mean, sure, help me out and I'll put in a good word for you. What can you do to help, anyways?"

"Yup, I'm not the staff. An experiment, just like most of the people here." Arcee smiled lightly at the guard, no trace of bitterness in his voice or face. "Name's Arcee Cree, and I lost my way to my room." He didn't really need a good word considering that he was going to die within the facility sooner or later, but it couldn't hurt, right? It was pretty much home already, since they'd never be able to leave the place. Arcee glanced at the guard, taking in his attire for the first time. "I'll help you if you get me back there, ok?"

From what he could see, the hair the guard had stuffed in his cap had a blue tint to them, as well as his eyes. The guard uniform didn't really seem to fit him properly, but then again, maybe it was because he had lost or gained weight recently? The guard also wasn't carrying any weapons, too, and Arcee knew that guards would have obeyed the speakers instructions, since it was part of their job. At the very least, a guard would've been looking for weapons to attack or protect himself with, right?

Hmm, that guy's suspicious... maybe he isn't actually a guard, haha. Laughingly, Arcee dismissed the thought from his mind. Nah, what're the odds of that? Impossible.

Although several experiments had escaped just now, according to the announcement...

Nah, the guard was probably new or something. And he was young (was he really old enough to be a guard?) enough to not want to die a death via experiment. His smile covering what he was thinking, Arcee continued, ticking each item off the list as he went.

"Lets see, I can sing, change my voice to match others, adjust my hearing, hold my breath for ten minutes and break glass using nothing but my voice and maybe a tuning fork. Also I can play a lot of instruments, amongst other things." He beamed at the guard, face friendly and helpful. "Anything in there that fits what you need? If not, I could help you look for another guard."

Zeke perks up upon hearing that he can sound like other people. The gears turn in his head, and leans in to Arcee with a grin and slowly backs away. He leans up against the keypad, with card in hand.

"You don't say, those are some pretty interesting talents you have there." He steps away from it, and points at it. "Oh hey, very convenient too, considering that since the lockdown vocal recognition has been activated. Think you can fool it?"

He holds the card out for Arcee to see, particularly the person's face printed on it. He scratches the back of his head nervously, trying to put on his best show possible and holding back his urges to wreck the place like a raving lunatic. Afterall, that is plan B, plan A results in a lesser likelihood to end back in his cell with a massive headache.

"Hulson mixed his key up with mine and now we are both in a mess." He says, trying his best not to break in his tone. "And hey, you helping me officially deputizes you, I mean, that is how that Genesis subject, the other one that shapeshifts, the one that turns into other people, ended up in security... as damn creepy as that is."

He begins to hear something else going on from the open elevator door. Yelling, somebody in one of the elevators seems stuck and something else, he could hear metal scratching and groaning as something seems to be making its way up the hard way. It progressing at a pretty decent pace, banging against each door trying to find one it can get through. It stops its search, it knows it has clearly two options now. Zeke slowly looks over seeing streams of a greenish glow in the deep dark abyss.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" His conscience at this point starts to nag him, and on the opposite side his instincts of self-preservation putting him in a psychological tug-of-war. He takes the keycard and throws it to Arcee in hopes he'll know what to do and leans out getting his footing on the top of the elevator and looking out to see the adjacent elevator. "Hey, you! Better hurry it up because one of the nastier freaks is coming on fast!

Cool, something he could do. Arcee grinned, somewhat devilishly. "Is that a challenge?" He teased, walking forward. "Because I want a pack of tea when I win. Fruit tea."

Arcee hummed as he looked at the card, studying it's features. He recognised that face, somewhat. One of the weirder guards who he never saw experiments as people, but Arcee had heard him talking before, a deep bass that sounded surprisingly pleasant. He didn't know whether he could replicate it since he'd only heard it once, but he might as well try, right?

"Yeah, I think I can do it," He smiled, trying to remember what the man's voice had felt like. Slightly bitter dark chocolate that ran smoothly in a fondue, or a baritone that sounded like a tuba in an orchestra? Then what the guard said caught his ears and Arcee came to a halt. "Wait, GNS-088 is in security?!" His voice sounded surprised, like he didn't believe his ears. "Whoa," he said, trying to wrap his mind around it. No, it was just way too weird. "Yeah, that's just plain weird. I guess - huh? What's that?"

Arcee frowned at the sound, closing his eyes to concentrate better. He tried to decipher it as the guard walked over to the elevator to find it. A person shouting, some kind of loud clanking like metal being clawed at -

The guard cursed, and Arcee heard more than saw a card being tossed his way. Opening his eyes, he fumbled but caught the card with both hands as the guard started yelling about something coming. Someone was trapped in the elevator and something nasty was coming up it, apparently. Arcee felt his stomach drop at the thought of the guard dying. That'd be terrible! What if it was one of those nice people who guarded the place or another experiment? Arcee wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he wasn't fast enough to save them.

"Got it!" Arcee dashed towards the pad, sliding the card in place the moment he got there. There was someone down there, and Arcee didn't want anyone to die if he could help it.

"Yellow alert in effect, voice confirmation required."

"Hold on," Arcee said, and this time instead of a clear tenor that sounded calming it was a smooth baritone, like dark chocolate flowing down in a slow, sticky stream.

"Voice is of Mikeal Derry, Status: Guard 1432. Access denied. Yellow alert in effect, voice confirmation required."

Arcee immediately adjusted his voice, and when he said "I'll be quick." his voice was deeper and rounder, like he'd been about to sing.

"Voice is of Gerald Hulson, Status: Guard 2310. Access accepted."

Arcee grinned, and the power went on.