Krister : Actually, your idea of Tom and the aliens was pretty kewl. It gave me the idea to see what the device was actually used for
and why everyone had that pursued feeling. Alton : Hope I didn't mess up anything up with my alternate explanation for the device. *grin* I couldn't help myself.
All : Like sydnie's post, here's some character development for both Leo and Docker, and yes, Docker is just as mean to Bravo as he is to Zulu. Who knows where Docker's gonna show up next???? Anyways, on with the show...
RPG :
"And so we floated through the night, waiting. Some waiting to be rescued, others waiting to die. And some waiting for an absolution that would never come." - Rose Dawson, Titanic.
Location : Cabin in the woods, Mass.
MD : Day 3, 1:15 am
All those stars, scattered throughout the night sky like diamonds on a black velvet cloth. Leo sat on the front steps in the extremely chilly Boston night looking out into the void of the universe. His mind turning over the events that took place at MIT, at the look of pure vengeance that flashed across Zenya's face when Docker held the girl hostage, at the knowledge that her look was probably etched on his face also at that same moment. When he recognized Docker, all he could think about was revenge, the need to kill the person who murdered his family, but somewhere deep inside, something hesitated. That very same thing that allowed the Crosses to get away, that unwillingness to kill anymore. Why? Why now? What was it that he told Zenya when he realized that she was about to shoot Docker, hostage or not?
"It's not worth it, it really isn't."
What had made him say that? He knew that he meant to say that it wouldn't have been worth it if Docker killed the innocent girl, but he didn't get that far. He just said, "It's not worth it." Did he really feel that? Was that true? All those hits, all those victims of his bullet. There was always another bad guy to kill, another contract to carry out, another hostage to save. The kills never stopped, and after a while, it became second nature to Leo. It was only after his own family was killed, that the impact of his actions was felt. The pain, the hopelessness... the knowing that he had taken so many other people away from their families as well.
Wasn't that the reason why he joined the FBI? To help people instead of kill them? What was it that he was really looking for? Absolution of his past sins, atonement, repentance? What was it? Peace of mind? Would it ever come, or would it always elude him for the rest of his days? His hatred for Docker was still there, it constantly burned within him, although he had managed to control it after all this time. The one question that concerned Leo at this moment was, would he be able to kill Docker when the time came or would he hesitate in his final moments? Shivering, Leo let that question lie down as he stood to go back into the cabin, knowing that it would still be a while before he got any sleep.
Location : Docker's apartment, Washington D.C
Damn, his shoulder hurt like someone had driven a white-hot poker through it. Docker shifted in his seat to accomodate the pain that Leo's bullet had incurred. He must admit, he had forgotten all about Deadeye Jones' quickness and accuracy. Docker had sorely underestimated him and nearly got his head blown off because of it.
"Never again, old man." Docker muttered to himself before downing the last shot of whiskey in his glass. "Gonna be a bit more careful next time. You and that Gorky kid, excuse me, woman could prove to be a pretty lethal combo."
He chuckled to himself as he fast-forwarded the tape he was watching on his television set. The box lay on the table next to him, labeled "Gorky" with two others below that labeled, "Jones" and "Calderon". Seeing them again brought back old memories, and so he decided to watch some of Docker's greatest hits. hehehehe.. get it? greatest hits... hehehehe... "Sometimes I kill myself", Docker thought to himself.
"Of course, you wouldn't mind that one bit, wouldja?" Docker said to the 17 year old image of Zenya changing from her night clothes to her daywear. "You were a pretty young thing back then, weren't ya?" He fast-forwarded the film to the day of his big bang. As he saw the younger Zenya wave to her family, he thought "Yessiree, perhaps I should send you and that assassin wanna-be Jones a little souvenir, for old times sake." He laughed to himself as he saw the bomb go off, the shrapnel flying everywhere, the younger Zenya getting knocked back by the force of the explosion, her hand going to her neck.
Docker yawned as he rewound the tape once again. As he switched the Gorky tape for the Jones tape, he nodded drunkenly. "Perhaps I should send a copy to the both of them, especially that I'm-a-better-killer-than-you-are Jones. He only got to see the result of my masterpiece. This way, he'd know exactly what had happened to his wife and kid."
As he pressed Play, Docker settled back as he watched himself circle Leo's naked wife tied helplessly spread-eagled on their bed, a knife gleaming in Docker's hand, a smile on his face.
Location : Secret military complex, Nevada
Time : Day 3, 3:50 am (PST)
Carol was strapped into the chair, as per the instructions of the scientist in charge of the special weapons project that hired her to retrieve this little device that was going to be strapped onto her head.
"It's only to keep you from panicking," they had assured her. "After the initial discomfort, there may be moments of disorientation and dizziness and we wouldn't want you to take off the probe before we have had a thorough run through."
She had nodded, knowing the risks that were involved. However, they didn't tell her of that feeling of being pursued or the heightened paranoia that the other subjects spoke of when testing another prototype of the object being strapped on to Carol's head. It got so bad, some of the other subjects killed themselves by scratching their eyes out or ramming shards of bone into their own brain. They wouldn't want to take that chance here with Carol, nosiree, bob. The science team had narrowed down the possible uses of the object as either being some sort of navigational array, a surveillance device, or perhaps a directional finder. With Carol, they hoped to narrow the choices down to at least two possibilities.
As the test started, Carol got herself attuned to the device, very much the same way that Leo and Vanessa had at the cabin. The only difference was that there was another circular grid in the upper middle part of the screen that Leo would've remembered as coming on during his floor by floor search of the Cambridge Marriot, and Vanessa wouldn't have seen at all. At the outer edge of the grid, there was a red dot getting closer to the center at what would seem to be a high rate of speed. Ignoring this, Carol started off by flipping switches on and off, opening doors, and generally roaming around the complex. As the red dot got closer to the center, Carol started to suddenly feel the outside presence that seemed to try and reach Leo and Vanessa when they had tried the device, except this time, the presence seemed to be almost on top of her.
"Take this thing off." Carol screamed, "It's almost got me. Take it off NOW!"
The red dot was just seconds from the center of the grid now as the presence that seemed to be pursuing her got a firm grip on her thoughts, her feelings, and her emotions. Carol was now in a full scale panic as she felt this over- whelming pressure start to bear down on her brain. The scientists watching in the booth started to see her brain waves spiking erratically, like there was something else occupying her brain besides Carol. All of a sudden, Carol's nose started to bleed. That's when all hell broke loose.
The lights within the complex started to flicker, first slowly then all of a sudden, it all went out. A rainbow of color flooded the room as all electrical equipment came to a halt. Clocks stopped, computers burned out, but the device on Carol's head was the only thing functioning. As the red dot reached the center of the grid, all of the doors suddenly opened and the room was filled with a bright white light. None of the other scientists would be able to marvel at this since they were all asleep, something in their brains seemed to shut down at that moment, all except Carol. As the creature came closer to her, it looked curiously at the person wearing the Emergency beacon that was usually found within their spacecraft. The entity looked at Carol closer, removing the device from her head and thought that Carol was watching it from her wide open eyes. It would have been a momentous moment for her, making contact with an EBE, had she been alive to witness it....
Respectively submitted,
Jeff Uribe
SA-3 Leo Jones, Team Zulu
SA-1 Jeff Calderon, Team Bravo