capitalh | [ hey, i'm not synthetica ]

Entry tags:

[ hey, i'm not synthetica ]

Who: Milly and Raiden
Where: Downtown L.A.
When: SOMETIME THIS WEEK
What: Milly fights a monster and gets in over her head. CYBORG TEAM-UP
Warnings: cyborg emotions???

Milly doesn't know where the monster came from. It's huge, more than twice her height, and dripping water -- gushing it at points, through what look like vent-like gills all over its body -- but if it came from the shoreline it must've had a long way to travel to get all the way to the city uninterrupted. It's hideous, with bluish, gnashing teeth, long and needlelike, bulbous eyes and Milly would swear those are wings on its back, stumpy little batlike wings that don't seem to do much more than twitch uselessly as it swings at her with wicked claws. Whatever it is, it's ugly, and Milly had been on patrol when she'd nearly flown straight into it in the middle of downtown, its huge taloned feet causing a four-lane traffic jam.

"Hey, ugly! Get lost!!" Milly's voice rings out as she sails through the air, first forward to punch it right in its face...and with alarming speed it reaches up and swats at her effortlessly, knocking her aside and sending her into an uneven spiral through the air. Milly manages to catch herself midair before she crashes headlong through a building, but before she can get back on the rebound, the monster's cornering her, its ugly eye turned on her for vengeance. It reaches out with its wet, clawed hand and snatches her right out of the air and oof -- it's got one hell of a grip. Milly squirms desperately in its grasp but it's so slimy she can't even get any leverage out of it.

"Hey! Let me go! Ugh!!"

She's starting to think she might have gotten in a little over her head here. If she could only reach her phone, she could call for backup -- Neku or Teddy or even Cynthia -- but the thing seems fairly intent on keeping its grip, looking intent about crushing her. Luckily, the reinforced cybernetic structure of her body means she's harder to crush, but it's still not looking too good right about now. Super strength doesn't mean a whole lot if you can hardly even move.

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Thankfully for everyone, Raiden happens to be in the area for reasons that are largely unimportant to the current situation. Generally, he tends to leave hero fights alone since they tend to have the whole thing under control - which is what he assumes is going on here until he hears Milly shouting at the thing to let her go.

(God that is a gross thing, now that he's actually looking at it.)

In an ideal world, what he'd like to do is take some time to track this... beast. Assess its weaknesses. Take it down without much fuss and without anyone else's safety to consider. He doesn't have the time for that right now though, so what he does instead is he just hurls his sword at the thing. He's not especially concerned with whether the sword actually lands, so much as it should, fingers crossed, distract it enough to make it drop Milly and hopefully divert its attention towards him.

Either way, he's barrelling towards it now. So if it doesn't get distracted by the sword, a punch in the face might work.

Unfortunately, the sword does little more than enrage the monster. It lets out a hideous, gurgling howl, reaching to yank out the sword that's now stuck in its side -- it tosses Milly aside but only so it can swipe at Raiden as he comes charging, claws extended.

"Augh!" Milly lets out a yelp as she finds herself suddenly sailing through the air with little control, though she picks herself up and rockets back into flight before she can hit the ground, although she's a little unsteady. She doesn't know the man who's trying to help her, all she can see is that he's headed straight for the monster that's been so thoroughly kicking her butt and she's too far away to do anything. She shoots forward through the air anyway, one fist extended, feeling a little bit panicked.

"Hey! Wait! Look out!!"

Not gonna lie, he had been hoping the sword would actually do some real damage rather than just making the thing angry. He's quick on his feet though, and he drops into a slide at the last second to skirt under the monster's hand and grab his sword, pulling it with him as he goes. No idea how good this thing's endurance is (better than he'd assumed so far,) but hopefully that should at least hurt it a little and give him a momentary advantage.

He realises too late that Milly's coming back in, so his shout of, "stay back--!" is kind of useless as things go.

Milly's gained too much momentum to stop now -- but the shouted warning gives her pause anyway, just enough for her to fumble midair and give the monster another opening. She tries to dodge out of the way but its wicked claws catch her by the arm, closing down and jerking her out of her flight path. Milly lets out a yelp, trying desperately to pull away, but then the monster grabs one of her legs with its other hand, seeming intent on pulling her apart.

She panics. Its grip on her arm and leg is crushing, even with her cybernetic strength, and she can't fly away like this. Her free limbs flail wildly for a moment, forgetting her mysterious ally in her frantic attempt to get free. She claws and punches at one of its hands with her free arm, to little effect even though she can see she's doing some damage. "Come on -- let go -- let go -- "

She doesn't think about it -- it just happens. She doesn't seem to have any control over it, controlled by some deeper instinct while she just watches in horrified surprise as her free hand seems to fold into itself, the synthetic skin coming away at the seams to produce some kind of energy blaster. There's a gun where her hand had used to be, and she's firing glowing pink blasts of energy at the monster before she even knows it. A few shots hit it in the face, taking out one of its eyes, and it roars in pain and fury, swinging out wildly with its tail at Raiden.

Its tail hits him in the chest and knocks him back a few steps - the benefit of this body, maybe. In the back of his head Raiden considers that just a year ago that blow could have done some serious damage, but in the present he's got his eye on the end goal. He needs to take advantage of this before it adjusts to the missing eye and probably gets about 700 times angrier and more difficult to predict.

With a couple of small leaps for momentum, Raiden's running back towards the monster and he leaps up onto its back without any hesitation. The best way to get it to let go of Milly is probably to just kill it, so guess that's the thing to do. He takes his sword and plunges it into the monster's neck, right up to the hilt. Holding on for dear life while it thrashes in what one can only assume is passionate objection to this turn of events, until it eventually accepts that this is happening and goes down.

Once he's content that it's definitely not going to get back up and cause another ruckus, Raiden looks over at Milly. Concerned, but not overtly worried seeing as she seems pretty hardy. "You okay?"

Milly's staring at the energon blaster where her hand had used to be even as she hits the ground hard with both feet, the shock rattling up through her legs, but she's got good shock absorbers and she hardly notices. She's aghast and horrified all at once -- where had that come from? Of course, there's only one answer. Her father must have done something with the new hand he'd given her, but he'd neglected to breathe a word about it.

She'll be angry about it later. That much she's sure of. For now she just wants it to go away, out of sight, because she's painfully, panickingly aware of how exposed she is right now. She doesn't know how, but she manages to get the gun to fold back into her hand, synthetic skin coming together over the cybernetic joints of her fingers just as her unexpected savior speaks.

"I'm -- I'm fine," she stammers out, head snapping up to look at him. There's no way he hadn't seen, he'd have to be blind not to have -- and that's when she notices he doesn't look exactly one hundred percent human himself. She doesn't know if that's a comfort or not. Her chest tight with worry, she takes a half-step back, hands drawn up against her chest. She bites her lip. "You...saw, didn't you?"

There's a significant pause on Raiden's end. He assumes, initially, that she's talking about the monster, and he looks down at it curiously as he withdraws his sword. For a brief moment he does actually question if it's real and if he's not in some training simulation, but then he realises that's not where Milly's attention was when she asked the question.

"Your... Hand?" If he looks confused, it's only because he is. He's pegged the expression on her face as confusion? Maybe? But he can't figure out why someone would be confused about having a gun in their hand. It seems like the kind of thing you'd know about.

(Considering the last few years of his life, that conclusion is laughable at best.)

His confusion isn't really a comfort. Milly's always been afraid that people would find out about her, about her body, and her father had always had her convinced that if they did, there'd be no reaction but revolt, disgust, horror. He looks like he has a few implants himself, maybe, but that doesn't stop Milly worrying. She's never met anyone else like her, anyway, and even if she had -- she doesn't know this man. She takes another step back, still covering her hand as though she might somehow retroactively shield him from having seen the gun.

"You -- you can't tell anyone! You can't."

Oh.

Okay, well first he's going to put his sword away since it can't be all that reassuring, and he backs up a little on his own to give Milly some space. If she wants to bolt, that's understandable, but he'd like to at least make sure she's okay before that happens. She seems pretty shook up.

"It's fine, I won't." He's still struggling a bit with the whole 'secret gun-hand' thing, but he's starting to get the feeling the situation is more like 'secret cyborg with surprise gun-hand.' Which is kind of a cause for concern. "It's not like I know who you are anyway."

"It doesn't matter," Milly says, and there's a faint light of panic in her eyes behind the domino mask. She bites her lip, still wary of the stranger even though he's said he won't tell. No one but Legion's ever found out before -- and Legion's conclusions were based on sensory data. They hadn't actually seen anything. But this man has, and that's never happened before. Not another hero, not like this. "You know what I look like. No one can know, okay? I'll -- I'll be in serious trouble if anyone finds out! You have to promise!"

"I promise." Raiden frowns - deeper than the usual frown on his face - trying to think of a way to ease the situation. This isn't really his area of expertise, but the issue is trust, right? She has absolutely no reason to take him on his word.

Maybe if he just... Tells her who he is? It could go either way, really. But hey, nothing ventured. "My name's Raiden, I'm with CONDOR." He reaches into his coat to pull out whatever a CONDOR ID looks like and holds it out for her to see, "if I don't keep my word, you'll at least know how to track me down and give me hell for it."

Awkward attempt at a joke? You betcha.

That's less of a comfort than he obviously thinks. Now there are two CONDOR agents that know she's a cyborg, and one of them is Alpha Force!! Oh, this is bad. This is really bad. Her father had always warned her that the government, that CONDOR were the ones who could make things the worst for her if she knew. Milly bites her lip, staring back at Raiden with a distinctly deer-in-the-headlights look on her face, but to her credit, she hasn't turned and flown away yet.

"If you're CONDOR, why aren't you trying to arrest me?" she blurts out, then immediately wants to bite down on her tongue. Of all the clumsy, stupid ways to voice her concerns, that has to be pretty high up there. She cringes at herself. Way to go, Starbreaker.

Wow, he's really knocking it out of the park on this one.

"For what? Cybernetics aren't illegal and I've got no proof you're unregistered except a mask." He sighs heavily, having absolutely zero interest in arresting a scared kid for the grand crime of being a little out of their depth. He's never heard of anyone matching her description, which suggests to Raiden that she's neither a danger or a villain. (Or she's new, but she moved like someone with experience.) So it seems to him like it would just cause a lot of unnecessary distress.

"Believe it or not, I'm really only trying to make sure you're okay." This is also more talking he's done outside of work than he's done in a year and he's starting to look pretty uncomfortable with trying to sound like an actual person, "that thing hit you pretty hard, and it doesn't look like you knew about your..." He gestures towards her hand, a little uncertainly, "before just now."

Cybernetics aren't illegal, maybe, but Milly's not convinced that there's no one at CONDOR -- or anyone else -- who wouldn't want to open her up and see how she works, just to get a look. She knows her father's work is some of the most advanced in the field, after all, and he's always drilled in her the need for secrecy... But the secrecy is starting to go a little far, she thinks, when he's keeping secrets from her. Her gaze shifts downward when he gestures to her hand, as though she's embarrassed.

"I just -- I'm getting used to it, that's all," she says defensively, fumbling for a halfway lie. But even as alarmed as she is, as awkward as this Raiden guy is...he seems all right. More sympathetic than Legion had been, anyway. And Milly's...never seen anyone like him before. Milly looks like she still might be about to bolt for a moment, but she looks back up at Raiden, still frowning in concern, but she looks hedgingly curious now, too.

"Are you, um... What happened to you?"

She wants to bite her tongue almost as soon as the words come out. Wow, Milly, way to go!!! Totally smooth way to ask about this guy's apparent cybernetic implants.

In the span of about half a second, Raiden's expression undergoes a lot of changes. He's not really surprised by the question - he never is - but there is a moment of simultaneous offense and extreme discomfort before he settles on a sort of disconnected acceptance that he's having this conversation.

He takes another moment to think on how to word his response, having never actually spoken about what happened in anything other than an official capacity, and there is the worry that Milly will ask about more than that.

"TRIDENT happened," he finally says after some hesitation. There's a venomous edge to the way he says it, but he manages to wrangle his tone into something a little softer and closer to sympathetic when he speaks again, echoing Milly's statement. "I'm still getting used to it."

Edited (goddamn italics) 2014-06-23 18:26 (UTC)

This conversation is weird and uncomfortable and it feels sorely out of place, but it's the most at ease Milly's felt during this whole encounter. "So you are..." she starts, but her throat tightens around the word before it can get out, and she has to swallow past it. "You're like me."

She doesn't look so apprehensive now, but there's a hint of the crushing sympathy she feels. It was bad enough to have it happen at all, but to suffer at the hands of TRIDENT, too? Milly can't imagine why, and she wouldn't dare ask. But even as she rocks back and forth on her heels indecisively, she can't push down all of her curiosity. She's never met anyone like her before.

"How long...?"

He raises an eyebrow that the comment that he's like her; it's not just the arm then. Moreover, the implication that she didn't have much of a say in it. He's a bit curious - if it's more than just the surprise gun, she's far too confident in her abilities (and, more to the point, good at hiding it,) for it to be a recent thing, and Milly already looks pretty young.

Contrary to popular belief, though, Raiden does have some tact and a few social graces, so he knows better than to ask her about her own situation. Especially this early into a conversation. Instead he gives some thought to the best way to answer her questions - trying to find the best balance between 'honest' and 'avoiding the issue' so that it doesn't seem as though he's dodging as much of the topic as he actually is. (Being detained in a TRIDENT facility for a year just isn't a topic he wants to broach on a first conversation with a stranger, is all. Or anyone for that matter.)

"I've been back about three months." Obscure it with the truth, brilliant. Expert spy tactics. Snake would be proud.

Milly's never met another cyborg, though, and while it's something she's always kept close to her chest -- she's never even liked discussing it with her father -- she finds herself wanting to share something with Raiden. Common ground isn't something she'd ever thought she'd find in this aspect of her life. It's why she's spent so much effort and time trying to find other ways to fit in.

Three months...god, that must be hard. Milly's so used to it she hardly remembers what it's like to have a natural body anymore; he must still be adjusting. And after being held by TRIDENT... Milly lowers her gaze a little, mostly as a gesture of respect for what she presumes must have been an awful lot of suffering, but she teeters on the balls of her feet for a moment before she steps a little closer.

"That's not a very long time," she acknowledges quietly. "I've been like this since I was seven... It takes some getting used to, I know. I was knocking stuff off tables for months..." She trails off, though, realizing that maybe Raiden doesn't really want to talk about this. "Um -- sorry. I just...thanks. Thank you."

Raiden's expression softens into something almost fond at her comments, appreciating Milly's efforts. He's come across the odd person with a prosthetic arm or bionic eye over the years, but nothing remotely as extensive as what he has. As far as he can tell, it's pretty rare, and even if he was the talking type, it's not as though there's anyone around who'd really get it.

Judging by how she reacted to... Well, almost everything, he'd assume the case is similar for Milly too.

"It's the strength," he replies after some hesitation, "that's been the hardest thing to adjust to." He drops his gaze to the ground, not out of embarrassment - not entirely - but rather that it's easier to think about if he's not watching for a reaction, "I've destroyed quite a few doors since I came back."

Milly's expression brightens hopefully, though shyly -- this is about as shy as she's ever been, it's not really in her wheelhouse to hold back, but...being a cyborg is different. She's always been alone in that. To discover that she isn't...it isn't something she's ever really thought would happen.

"I know what you mean," she says, with a tiny, self-conscious smile. "I can't even tell you how many glasses I broke the first few years..."

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[ hey, i'm not synthetica ]

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