Aberrant: Dead Rising - On The Safe Side

[Courier]

James waved at Dan when he walked in and said, "Yo Dan. Any idea what this is all about?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"Probably just want to check out everyone, Especially those of you who tangled with that Zombie blob."

He nods "At any rate, it makes for a nice break from being buried in car engines, or my various other projects."

[Courier]

James opened his mouth to disagree then closed it without saying anything. If it was just the blob then Fox and Dan wouldn't have been summoned... or maybe you're just being disagreeable with Dan because of...

[Mr Fox]

"Yeah, after a tangle with that blob zombie it doesn't hurt for us all to get checked out. I didn't even touch it but I'll set a good example by coming in. I think we should start doing check ups after any big mission like this especially if there's a mutant involved."

[Jasmine Gentian]

"Besides, you were going to check him out too anyway, right? Since he was in combat with the super-zomb too?"

Myf nodded at her, and Jasmine stepped back a little to let her do a similar scan on Bond, while she took the thermometer that Hana offered her obligingly and waited for the Doc to do Bond's check-up. Myfwany's words and instructions seemed to have soothed her somewhat, and certainly Jim's confident and supportive presence couldn't be hurting. She even glanced down at Hana and smiled at her, murmuring quietly to the pre-teen as Jim was examined.

"So, you just hanging out with the Doc, trying to learn the ropes?"

[Atomicweasel]

Startled out of her musings by the sound of Jasmine's voice, Hana looked up at the young woman and answered her first with a blank stare. It took her a moment, glancing from Bond to Myfwany, before she realized Jasmine had been talking to her.

"Yeah, I guess." Hana murmured back shyly. She seemed to have left it at that, but Jasmine was still smiling at her, and she felt an irresistable compulsion to keep the young woman's attention on her.

"I took some first aid classes last summer because I had a baby-sitting job, well actually I had alot of baby-sitting jobs, but I only got certified last summer, but it's not like it was a big deal or anything," she paused to breathe and wound down, running out of steam "it was just like Heimlich and mouth to mouth and that."

Hana scuffed her sneaker against the tiles, looking anxiously at Jasmine to see if her conversational gem would be met with approval.

[Jasmine Gentian]

"That's cool - Mom taught us all that stuff too. She's a nurse, and she liked to make sure we were prepared if we ever needed it. I remember when I was a little kid we were out at a restaurant once and this guy a table over started choking on something. She did the Heimlich and saved his life right there - none of us ever complained about learning the stuff she wanted to teach ever again."

She was quiet for a moment, but instead of letting herself get lost in the memory she just shook her head a little, and smiled again at Hana, shrugging her shoulders.

"Anyway, it's good stuff to know. I'll bet not a lot of people around know how to do that anymore."

[Atomicweasel]

"Yeah." Hana offered Jasmine her patently shy and timid smile.

The girl went to put her hands in her pockets, but found for the umpteenth time that her tiny shorts didn't have any. So she reached back to settle her palms against the counter, chewed her lip and made a point of scanning the shelves and drawers of Myfwany's small office.

When her eyes returned to Jasmine and Bond she worked up her courage to ask "Are you happy you're having a baby?"

[Jasmine Gentian]

She was quiet for a moment, looking a little caught off-guard by the young girl's straightforward question, and then thoughtful. Finally, her corner of her lips tilted upwards slightly in a nervous little smile.

"Yeah. I think I am. Just.. kinda surprised, you know?"

The comment made her think about her own mother, and what she must have felt like when she found out she was pregnant for the first time. Which made her wonder what it would be like to have her mother find out that she was going to be a grandmother for the first time. And suddenly, some small voice in the back of her mind suggested that maybe it was a good thing she hadn't found her Mom just yet.. because zombie apocalypse or no, she was pretty sure Nina Gentian would kill her oldest daughter if she found out she'd gotten pregnant two weeks before her eighteenth birthday. Or at least attempt to kill the guy who'd gotten her pregnant, since she wouldn't want to hurt the baby.

Her gaze flickered to Jim's, and for some reason unfathomable to him, they were glimmering in mild amusement.

[Atomicweasel]

Hana could think of a lot of reasons why having a baby was a terrible idea. Babies were helpless and had to be fed and taken care of. The baby might get infected...or even be born infected, like that thing that happened to babies when their moms drank. Maybe the Z virus was like that. And even if the baby did make it...what kind of horrible shitty world would Jasmine be bringing it into? What was the point of making life in a place so evil and hopeless? The baby would have to grow up in some busted up military base all surrounded with barbed wire and mines and stuff. It would never get to enjoy an ice-cream cone or go to the movies or ride a rollercoaster or anything like that. It's whole life would be the nightmare Hana was living now, and it wouldn't have any nice memories to keep the darkness back.

Don't be stupid. Hana wanted to shout. Don't be a selfish retard. Get rid of it. Do it the biggest favor you ever can and don't let it be born.

But Hana liked Jasmine. She'd liked her almost right away, and so all she did was nod a little and say "Yeah."

[SalmonMax]

Myf had to concentrate a little harder than usual to stay focused on Bond as she repeated the quick and dirty tests she'd performed on Jasmine. Mostly just checking for symptoms of early Z infection, and then using her strange 'super' senses to check them out. Hana and Jasmine's conversation was interesting. She got Bond's thermometer herself, and had him put it in his mouth while she ogled him with her powers. That would stop him from emitting some action-movie style quip, at least for a few minutes...

(Giving Bond the supersense Eye now!)

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin left Violet's the next day, sprinting across the main floor, refusing to look at anything. She was still wearing the shirts she had been wearing yesterday, tight and sleeves straining against her biceps, though Violet had found her a pair of jeans that fit okay, after she rolled up the pant legs. She was also given a bra that was way to frilly, a bright pinky-purply colour.

Ashley accompanied her to Myfwany's clinic, worried about her cousin. Kristin hadn't sleep well last night, wracked by terrible nightmares, and her eyes were still a little sunken from her lack of sleep. She hadn't wanted to go, but Ashley had remembered what the doctor had said, and she managed to cajole her cousin into going.

At the door to the clinic, Kristin stopped, wide eyed and hesitant.

"Come on, Ash! Really, I feel fine! I just wasn't used to a soft bed after sleeping on the floor for so long. We don't have to do this." Though Ashley knew she would deny it, Kristin was almost whining, her too pretty face pursed in a pout.

"Kristy, please? The nightmares I understand, I have them too. But you changed a lot in there and... and we don't know how it happened. They could be side-effects or symptoms or something. Please... do it... for me? I just want to know that you're okay."

"Fine," Kristin huffed. But she still chewed her lip and took a deep breath before rapping loudly on the doorframe.

"Hello? Excuse, Dr. Shattuck, it's me. Kristin Mackenzie I mean. You... you said you wanted to do a check-up on the people who fought the Zombie-Blob-Thing."

[SalmonMax]

Myf looked over at Kristin and nodded absently, then said to Bond, "I don't see anything wrong, or out of the ordinary with you. If you're not having any symptoms, then I think you can go." She gives him a smile.

"Now...Kristin...come over here. Just going to do a relatively quick exam now. We'll have a more complete one when things settle down a bit. Now, start by following the light with your eyes..."

As Myf did the basic physical, she peered with her powers into the shells of light that made up Kristin's body. She was immediately struck by two things...first, how entwined the green and gold glows were, and second...there was a green furnace in Kristin's belly. Smaller and dimmer than Jasmine's, but just as recognizable.

And yes...the gold aura of her power had those funny black streaks in it, and seemed a bit dimmed.

Myfwany put her instrument back down on the counter and washed her hands, stalling for time.

"Kristin, how old are you again?"

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Why does everyone keep asking me that? Just 'cuz I have big boobs now? Other girls my age have some just as big, or even bigger. Kristin looked down, glancing at her corded forearms as her hands rested in her lap. Okay, I never saw a girl as buff as me in real life - but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

Dr. Shattuck had been nice, but the way she had looked at her made Kristin feel like Myfwany had been looking into her. Kristin hadn't been able to decipher her expression through her professional demeanor. What did she find out? Is it bad? I feel fine - mostly fine. But that's only because I sleep on a real bed and had some real food.

"I'm fifteen," Kristin answered defensively, looking at Myfwany through lowered lashes and the glossy gold tresses hiding almost half her face.

[Atomicweasel]

Hana moved away from Jasmine's side, making room for Bond to get down from the examination table and rejoin the young woman. She looked up and gave Kristin a shy smile by way of greeting, but the burly teen went straight to the table without so much as a glance at Hana.

Maybe I pissed her off, Hana thought. Maybe she's still sore about the goat...or... Maybe Kristin was mad about Simon. Maybe Ashley had said something.

Hana licked her lip and kept her eyes on her Adidas during Kristin's exam, flicking the little flashlight in a lazy circle across the floor. When Myfwanny finished the exam, Hana exchanged the flashlight for the stethoscope, turning away from the examination table and slipping the ear-buds in. The stethoscope was easy to fit under the collar of the too big FNAC tee Hana was wearing. She propped herself against the sink counter and listened to the beating of her own heart.

[Jasmine Gentian]

After Bond's exam was finished as Kristin stepped in, Jasmine and Bond stepped out of the waiting room together with a brief farewell to Myfwany. Jasmine gave Violet, Fox, and James a brief wave farewell but seemed distracted by something, and Bond's attention seemed mostly focused on the young super at his side, though he gave them a slight nod of the head and a wry smile as they left as well.

The only thing of possible consequence as they made their departure was the way Jim slipped his arm over Jasmine's shoulder, and the way she leaned into him as they walked. Though there had been hints of that kind of closeness during the trials following the raid on Paradise, but most of the people there had been too caught up in their own kind of hell to notice. They didn't seem to be making much of a secret about it though, now that they were back at the refuge - the pair definitely seemed closer than they had in the days before.

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany nodded and forced herself not to wince or shake her head or any of the other reactions that her body wanted to have. She'd had to give people bad news before, but this girl who was so young and been through so much...it was hard to tell her that her trials weren't over yet.

Harder still to accept what her likely reaction would be.

She waited for the room to clear, then said, "Kristin, I have some news that might be hard to hear. You're healthy, you're not in any danger that I can see. But..."

Her voice dropped in volume a bit, but in the quiet of the office, it was still easy to hear.

"You're pregnant, Kristin."

[Atomicweasel]

Hana's eyes shot up and locked on Kristin, surprised alarm written all over her pretty face.

Pregnant!? But Kristin was only a couple years older than she was. Kristin was just a kid! If she was pregnant then that meant...Hana thought back to what Myfwany and Violet had told her of the prison, of the women there, of what had been done to them.

"Oh, shit, Kristy," Hana heard her own voice exclaim. She covered her mouth with one hand, looking at Myfwany then again at Kristen. Hana was surprised to feel a lump of sympathy lodged in her throat somewhere. "I'm so, so, sorry."

She came forward quickly, crossing the room with her whisper of a stride to Kristin's side. "Dr. Myfwany will help you get rid of it, right Doctor?" Hana placed her hand lightly on Kristin's shoulder and rubbed the girl's tightly bunched muscles as she looked up at Myfwany for confirmation.

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany did a doubletake that would have been comical under any other circumstances. Hana! The younger girl had been quiet and attentive enough that Myfwany had just stopped thinking of her being there. It was like having a nurse around again.

"Hana," she said quickly, "You understand that this is not to leave the room without Kristin's permission, right? Not a -word-."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"No."

The word made no sense to her. They had used her, but they had hurt her even more - hurt her so much that had almost not wanted to live anymore. Nothing could be living inside her.

"That's not possible."

Her voice was distant, hollow, emotionless. If Myfwany hadn't seen a hand instinctively twitch to pat her taut, rippling abdomen, she might have even thought Kristin hadn't heard her. Her face was blank and her eyes looked at nothing that she or Hana could see.

"I'm only fifteen."

Her bright jade eyes snapped back into focus, roving around the office in spastic arcs, looking for something. Myfwany could see the gears turning in Kristin's head and was eternally grateful her surgical implements were secured in a cabinet and out of sight.

Originally Posted By: Hana

"Dr. Myfwany will help you get rid of it, right Doctor?"

Kristin hadn't even noticed Hana in the office, and Hana wasn't sure she noticed now, through her stunned disbelief. Though Kristin's skin felt smoother and softer than satin, the muscles beneath writhed like warm, steel cables. Kristin's head turned languidly with inhuman smoothness, to look at Hana with dry, frightening eyes.

The colour drained from her face and she looked like she was going to be sick. She could almost feel the... thing inside her, growing, wriggling, infecting her. It was like every, single, man from from Paradise was able to still touch her from beyond death, was touching her now, always. She was chained to them with an almost unbreakable bond.

Almost.

They had rammed enough things into her, she knew what to expect. It would hurt, a lot, but then the living chain would break, nothing more than bloody soup. She just needed something long enough to shove up inside her - it didn't even need to be sharp - and then stir.

Or a doctor, one of them could do it.

"Doctor - I... Can you..." The young girl looked up at the red-haired doctor with pleading eyes, the words catching in her throat. She couldn't say them. The end of the examination table crumpled as her hand tightened in distress.

Her mom had joked once that she thought she'd never have any grandchildren, with three boys who would never settle down and a daughter who was a complete tomboy. Now, with her mom and two brothers dead, and her father and other brother gone, she was the last. Her family wasn't was super religious or anything, but they went to church every Sunday, and the priest and mom and dad had all said abortion was wrong.

It didn't feel wrong right now. When she had been in Paradise, at first, she'd prayed to God, but the only answer she ever got was Master's laughter. Fuck him, all of them, and fuck God too.

"Can you make it go away?" In that moment, she was young, unearthly and uncanny in her beauty, and so, so old.

[Atomicweasel]

With a sharp intake of breath, Hana stepped back from Kristin. She dropped her hand from Kristin's shoulder as if burned. In that moment, Hana had looked into Kristin's eyes and seen a darkness so alien and terrible it chilled her to the bone...

...a darkness she knew intimately, a darkness that clawed and nibbled at her resolve and sought to come out of her in a rush. In an endless tide. Could Kristin really have it in her too?

Hana made a little noise, like an inward sigh, and fell silent. Kristin's empty eyes had held hers, but when Kristin turned towards Myfwany, the spell was broken. Hana was freed.

"I'll...I'll go wait outside." Hana stammered. She turned and all but fled from the room, holding her breath until she'd cleared the office and swung the door shut beside her.

Out in the waiting room Hana recognized some of the other supermen from the refuge. There was Daniel, the huge man--she'd forgotten his name--and Fox Morgan, or Morgan Fox...Hana couldn't remember. Violet could be glimpsed through a dingy glass partition, stopped next to one of the infirmary beds to check on a patient.

Hana dropped her eyes, shyly approached Daniel and said "I still have your binoculars. I forgot to give them back."

[Mr Fox]

Fox saw the young girl come fleeing out of the office looking like she'd seen death. But as fast as she'd come out she'd turned to Dan and talked about binocs. To say that he was curious would be an understatement. He really hoped the other young girl Kristin was ok. It would be a damn shame if she were infected by the Z or something.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan smiled at Hana. "So you do. I'll get those back from you eventually, but for now you can hold onto them." She'd had them since asking about them. He saw no need at this point to demand them back, so she could hold onto them, hell might turn to be a good thing.

[Courier]

James asked, "What's going on in there?" Jas looked shaken up, and now so does... Hana?

[Atomicweasel]

Hana looked from Dan to James. "Um." She glanced back toward the closed door of Myfwany's office, then gazed up at the muscle-bound former fireman. "I can't tell." She blinked, shifted the collar of her too big FNAC tee shirt, and shyly added "It's private."

Then Hana turned back to Dan and favored him with a reluctant little grin. "Okay." she timidly agreed.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded. "So Did you have a good sleep last night? Had to be a whole lot better sleeping in a bed after a good shower and food."

[Atomicweasel]

"Yeah, it was pretty good." Hana raised her shoulders into an insouciant little shrug. "I have to share my room with those two other girls from the prison." She leaned against the wall next to Dan, tilted to the left. The FNAC tee slipped along her shoulder and off, and Hana absently tugged it back into place.

"The shower was real nice." Hana told Dan. "And I went and saw Lorraine this morning, like you told me to and she gave me these clothes and some old beef jerky. She said I could have a shower too, but I already one." Hana rubbed the fingers of one hand over the knuckles of the other and looked down.

"Hey, um, Daniel?" she asked shyly, "Do you know where Simon is?"

[Dan Hawkins]

He stopped, Freezing momentarily. Nbody had called him by his actual name in months. "No I don't. I wasn't able to find him when I stopped back by to get him." He shrugged. "I assumed he continued helping people. I haven't heard anything otherwise."

"If you're concerned, I'm sure Fox can have his people find him pretty quick."

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany licked her lips and nodded slowly. "I can, Kristin, if that's what you want. I know this is...really hard for you. I understand that."

She took a deep breath and went on. "What I'd like you to do, as a favor to me, is not make this decision now. Right now you're upset, and it's hard to make good, long-term decisions like that. There are things we can do besides abortion."

"That said, if once you've thought about it you decide that's what you want to do...then I will do it. All right? Just give this a little time before you make up your mind."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin's strong shoulders slumped with Myfwany's request, her head bowed to hide the resigned expression on the blond super's face. She was no long an inhuman beauty, ageless and powerful, but just a young girl, lost and hurt. Myfwany had said she'd help, just asked for time, but all Kristin heard was a No.

It didn't matter, she could do it herself.

But she knew she wouldn't.

"Okay Doctor, I'll wait... And think about it. Can I go know?" Myfwany flinched as the weary acquiescence struck a maternal chord, and simply nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Kristin shuffled out of Myfwany's office, bearing a weight she never wanted, jade eyes shining with unshed tears. The door closing shattered the silence permeating the sterile room.

[Atomicweasel]

"Oh, no, that's okay. I'll just go look for him myse--"

Hana cut herself off and looked up as Kristin stepped out of the office and into the waiting room. She straightened up and gazed at the older teen. She wanted to say something comforting. She wanted to say something just right. Instead she stood where she was, bit her lip, and waited for Kristin to leave.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded and followered her gaze to the source of the sound. He saw Kristen looking distressed and nodded. "Clean bill of health?"

He made no movement towards her, just posed a simple non threatening question, his voice carrying the tone of mild concern.

[Courier]

James saw Kristin and thought, Good grief, what is Myf doing in there?

James asked, "Kristin?" Right. Let's just stop there. Big threatening man, Hornsbeck's favorite girl, not a good combo.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin stalked through the waiting room, not knowing where she was going, not caring where she was going, as long as it was away. She was hardly aware of anyone else in the room, lost in the turmoil of her thoughts. Why? Why this? I took everything else, let it scar me forever - this is too much! I'll just stay away for a few days, then come back and say I thought about it, and I want it gone! Then everything will be-

Originally Posted By: Dan Hawkins

"Clean bill of health?"

Originally Posted By: James

"Kristin?"

Voices, male voices, cut through the maelstrom of her mind, and Kristin's head slowly turned to face Dan and James. Her lips peeled back in a silent snarl, her green eyes blazing, furious at the moment with someone, anyone, everyone, with a dick. They had done this to her and they'd want to do it again too.

"I'm FINE!" she snarled, then dashed to the door, slamming it behind her with the sound of splintering wood.

She kept running, needing to be alone. She didn't want anyone to see her crying, not about this. One day out of Paradise, and it seemed she hadn't stopped weeping since. She needed a place to hide.

Ashley watched her cousin leave the waiting room, mouth open, horror mounting in her eyes. She gave everyone a hopeless shrug, Hana earning a sharp eyed look, then followed after Kristin, hoping she wouldn't do anything... drastic.

"I'll go make sure she's okay."

[Mr Fox]

Fox frowned as the young super slammed the door on her way out. He moved to the doctor's office quickly and opened the door. "Doc, the girl that just left, Kristin. If it's personal, I don't need to know, but is she ok?"

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany was sitting at her desk, looking bleakly at a mug full of pens. She looked up as Fox came in and composed herself.

"She's very upset, and with good reason. It's nothing that will hurt anyone else though, Fox, and it's something that she'll be able to deal with in time. One way or another."

She stood up.

"I'm starting to think that giant zombie-thing did something to some of you though. I don't see anything physically wrong, but I've seen a couple of people that were reputedly in direct contact with the monster, and their powers..."

"I'm not sure how to put it. Imagine that you had a light bulb inside you that was shining. That's how I see your powers. But this thing...it's like it draped a thin dark cloth over that bulb. The light's still coming out, but it's dimmed."

Myfwany shook her head.

"I have no idea what it means, if it means anything at all."

[Mr Fox]

"I see." He moved the rest of the way into the room. "Kristen has her cousin to lean on, I'm sure she'll be fine. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know." He didn't expect there was. The last thing a girl that had been through what she had needed was a man poking his nose in her business.

"As for the other, you can check me out next if you want. Besides being a little tired from all the exertion yesterday I'm feeling fine." He cocked his head in thought, then added, "I'm sure you already plan to, but please be sure to follow up on the ones you find that were effected and keep me appraised."

[Courier]

Quote:

"I'm FINE!" she snarled, then dashed to the door, slamming it behind her with the sound of splintering wood.

There was a moment of silence and James said softly to the door, "Of course you are."

James looked at where Fox had gone, presumably to confront Myf, then reached up to check his eyes.

[Atomicweasel]

“Oh, hey...I need to talk to her.” Hana murmured at Dan as Ashley went after Kristin. She glanced up, smiled bashfully, and raced off behind Ashley. As she bolted across the waiting room and out through the now loosened and creaking door, it didn’t occur to Hana to think that Myfwany hadn’t actually said she could leave, that she had, in fact, specifically asked Hana to stick around. What was on her mind was catching up to Kristin’s cousin before Ashley caught up to Kristin.

“Ashley, wait!” Hana called as she dashed around a startled patient who’d been limping by. “Hold up!” Hana ran faster still, overtaking the taller, older girl outside the building. She reached out and caught hold of Ashley’s shoulder. When Ashley whirled around to face her, Hana took a sharp step back. “Just hold on, okay?” she said a little breathlessly, holding her hands out, palms up. “I just want to talk to you.”

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Ashley glared down at the raven-haired minx, straining for every inch of her five foot seven height, warm brown eyes hot and frantic from looking for her distressed cousin and being accosted by the younger girl. Her lips tightened as she considered the little girl, struggling to keep the frown from her face. There's something about her, the dark... And I saw her cozying up to Simon... Still, she didn't actually do anything.

Ashley sighed, blowing a length of chestnut hair out of her face. "What do you want, Hana?" she asked briskly, her eyes glancing over Hana's head, searching for her cousin. How hard can it be to find a girl that looks like a hundred of the hottest Playboy Center folds and fitness models put together? Fuck, she can run like a horse, though. Oh, Kristin, what did the doctor say...

"Wait! Hana, you were in the office!" Ashley exclaimed, her gaze shooting back to lock with Hana sapphire eyes, hands holding tightly to her slender shoulders. "What did the doctor say to Kristin? Tell me!"