legionmissions | THE NINTH GATE

Entry tags:

THE NINTH GATE - [modplot]

Who| Anyone who signed up
What| "The Ninth Gate" plot
Where| It starts on Rimbor, moves to Earth
When| The same time as "Gone-Away World" and "Total Eclipso the Heart"
Warnings/Notes| Lots of really fucked up suicide cult stuff.

It's not that difficult to get a lead on where the Catastrophists are recruiting, but so far the survival rate of undercover Scicops is...bad. As in, none of the undercover cops that have been sent in have come back. So with the rise in Catastrophist activity and losing several of their top undercover officers, the Science Police has actually asked for the Legion's help for once. A few tips from their contacts have made it clear that something big is coming, a terrorist attack of sometime, and time is running out. They need to get someone on the inside that actually survives, and they're hoping the Legion can do what they couldn't.

Fortunately, there's an easy in to at least start the undercover op.

The Science Police has long since determined that the Universal Brotherhood is just a front for the Catastrophists, largely due to the references to Apokolips and Darkseid they keep dropping. Science Police specialists and Legion intelligence officers handle the initial contacts, creating fake personas that they chat out as getting duped into embracing the Catastrophists' cause. They even donate enough credits to make it seem like the personas are emptying out their modest bank accounts to support the cause.

The next step is a very thorough briefing given to the Legionnaires going undercover on this mission, so they know every possible detail about their fake personas, and have access to all the chats they need to pretend to remember having.

Then, they're armed with very advanced technology to use to infiltrate the group. Super advanced subdermal hard-light hologram generators, sensor emulators that give off biosigns that fit their personas, advanced psi-blockers that even allow them to project surface thoughts that fit their cover. They have all the knowledge they need to infiltrate the group - now they just have to survive initiation.

They're sent in three pairs to sign up for recruitment in a shady bar on Rimbor, at separate times so them showing up together doesn't seem suspicious. Rimbor is an urban world that's just layers and layers of city on top of older cities. They're all led underground, to abandoned under-levels that used to be on the top levels of the cities only a few hundred years before, but are now that are deemed uninhabitable even by the lowest dregs of Rimborian society.

Once they're in, there are only two ways out: through surviving initiation or in body bags dropped in Rimbor's massive trash incinerators.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

She was. And he may not have heard her voice, but he felt the touch. It gave him something to focus on, and step-by-step he was able to clear his mind, finding calm in the pain. The agitated twitching stops.

You're gonna be okay. Carolina's voice says instantly, and she's trying to be calm. We're on a mission for the Legion, remember? That asshole just put you through some serious pain.

Pain that it is going to be her turn to go through in just a moment. She flicks her gaze to them again.

"Give me a moment to calm my brother," she asks, and moves in a little closer. She doesn't pull her hand out of Kyou's.

Deep breaths. Don't say anything out loud, okay?

"You will go one at a time," says the guide. "You may comfort one another during the ritual, if you choose. Our paths to the end of days are not something we'll all face alone. We'll all walk together hand in hand to the peace of oblivion. "

He gestures for Thad to lay down on a soft mat in front of Sister Ellora.

"There now. There are some who would break under the weight of their past hardships. But it isn't yet time for that. We must carry on at least long enough to bring about a proper ending," says Sister Ellora. "After facing the past, are you ready, recruit, to face the end that lies in your future?"

Edited 2017-10-02 09:43 (UTC)

That was-...it was supposed to be funny.

The meek thought was weak, rushed, and mixed with the underlying thought that he hadn't meant for her to hear that. Gallows humor was a trait he'd picked up from his AI, but tossing it at a near stranger in this kind of situation, intentionally or otherwise, was probably not his best and brightest idea.

Sorry. I'll be fine. Even if they aren't setting out to kill us with this, memories will still be easier to deal with than physical pain.

His subjective sense of time might not be as slow as it was when he had all of his powers, but it was still slower than an average persons, and he had no desire to subject himself to what might end up feeling like an hours worth of physical torcher. As far as he was concerned, he lived through the memories once and he could do it again. It wouldn't be pleasant, but he could do it.

Nodding at their guide, he looked to Pidge, for a moment getting the inkling he should make some show of affection to hold up their cover of being a couple, but not knowing what would be appropriate he let the idea drop, instead just doing as instructed and calming moving to lay on the mat.

"I'm ready." Garrus says, sounding steadier than he probably feels as he sits up.

Widowmaker rose to her feet and offered a hand to help Garrus up. She watched the cult members out of the corner of her eye to assess their reaction as her companion recovered. It would help her calculate how much they liked the reaction Garrus gave. She was going to need to present something similar, as the emotional pain wouldn't affect her when it was her turn.

I'll take your word for it, but the tone of the thought suggests that she doesn't actually believe him.

Pidge takes her place on the other side of the mat, unsure what to do. It would look strange if she didn't offer some kind of comfort, wouldn't it? They're supposed to be a couple, and they have to act like it.

...What would she want Dipper to do here?

Trying to make it look as natural as she can, she puts one of her hands over his. This should make it more convincing.

"Yes, you understand," says the guide. "Your suffering helped you see the truth, that there is only one way to end all suffering. What we ask of you is to take conviction from that truth as you join the fight beside us."

They clearly have heard and seen what they wanted to see and hear with Garrus. Their expectations from this ritual are both that their conscripts can survive hardship and that their suffering makes them further believe in the cause.

Sister Ellora gestures for Widowmaker to lay down next.

Sister Ellora starts and her power doesn't just draw the memories to the surface of his mind. She makes him experience them all over again, and the feelings he felt while they happened - and any negative feelings he felt after, in reflection - all pile up on each other, heightened, worse even than what he originally felt at the time.

Her powers allow her to make people experience their worst memories but also to feel their pain and life's regrets that came later, the pain of the past and present all rolled up into one.

I can take it. I can take it.

The words come out like a mantra, like it's something he has to tell himself too often. But he manages to calm himself down. Her comfort does actually help. Ever since his family died, he'd had to face terrible shit like this alone. Meeting his friends at school had changed that, but after leaving them behind due to being drawn to the Legion's universe, he'd figured that it'd be right back to having to look out for himself.

Maybe he was wrong.

"I'm okay. I'm okay."

And he actually is now.

Thanks for the breather.

"This pain, this suffering, there is so much pain like it in the universe. This is our truth," says the guide. "And this truth is what fuels our every action."

Kyou has to hide his expression, which clearly says, 'If you say another word of cultish gobbledygook I'm going to smack you in the mouth.' He does it by turning towards Carolina and putting a hand on her shoulder, using it to move so she can take his place, and making it look like he's trying to give her some support to brace her for what's next.

I really hope we get a chance to knock his teeth in before this is over.

"Your turn. I know you're strong enough for this, sis."

If we do, you can have the first punch.

By Kyou's standards, this is a gracious gift that he's offering, in exchange for her having his back as a teammate.

"Prepare yourself," says Brother Rellick, gesturing for her to lay down in Kyou's place. The guide moves the bite guard that'd fallen out of Kyou's mouth halfway through out of the way and offers Carolina a new one.

Carolina sends that it's no problem when he thanks her, letting him switch their places when the cultist waxes poetic about pain. She feels the same way, but she keeps her face straight - slightly nervous but determined, as she's actually feeling.

Thanks, she thinks (and also says out loud) at him as she lays down, projecting a little mental smirk - a burst of warmth. Pretty sure the thought of knocking his teeth in is going to keep me going.

She takes the bite guard and places it in, laying back.

Just imagining it now-

She never finishes her thought, since Rellick starts without telling either of them. The scream that she gives is muffled behind the bite guard, what it's there for, and her fists ball up. Her back arches while her legs kick out, bending and then flattening.

She's been through torture. She's been in a frozen lake with AI ripped out of her mind, she's starved for eight days straight - and still somehow nothing compares to it feeling like she's going through all of it at once. She has to breath through her nose or risk spitting out the guard and splitting all their ears with a shriek.

She squeezes her eyes shut, digging her fingers into the ground under her. It hurts - but she has to keep going. She has to shoulder this.

I can do this. I can do this - I have to do this.

She doesn't realize she's sending it to Kyou, a desperate mantra that she has to do this, that it'll be over. Somehow, she manages the five minutes, even though by the end her throat is raw and there are tears in the corner of her eyes.

This. Blows. Chunks.

I was bad enough going through it himself but watching someone else go through it makes him want to force them to eat their own intestines.

Yeah, sure, Kyou kills people. Like a lot. But he makes it quick and usually those people suck anyway, so who cares? But this, forcing already broken people through stuff that's meant to break them more? What the hell.

He can't do anything about it, though. He can only watch, like she did, and be grateful they didn't walk into this as messed up as the people that sign up to the Catastrophists for realsies. Even though he's a little awkward about it, he holds her hand through it, too, the way she'd held his, and gives her the same comforting words, the focus on my voice stuff. It's the least he can do.

Then it's all over.

I've got you, he says, quietly, helping her sit up and making it so his arms can keep her upright for however long it takes it her to steady herself. Take your time. It's almost like an out of body experience. Took me a few seconds to make my brain connect with my body again.

It causes one hell of a feeling of dissociation but he doesn't know the technical word for it.

He stalls the way she did. "Just let my sister catch her breath and then we'll be ready to face what's next."

Edited 2017-10-05 07:32 (UTC)

She feels like a raw nerve - scraped open and exposed, for some reason. Not as bad as if they'd sorted through her worst memories - therin lies the things of nightmares.

But her breathing is ragged when it stops, as it takes her to feel like she can feel the rest of her body again. There's grime under her nails where she scraped the ground and she takes deep breaths, focusing on Kyou's voice to help ground her. It helps.

That's one hell of a way to describe it, she tells him, finally able to get her legs under her.

"I'm fine," she says out loud - shaky, but true. Someone determined, hopefully, in the Brotherhood's eyes.

"If you're both able to stand, it's time for your next and last trial," says the guide, gesturing for them to follow him.

He gives them time to stand, understanding they might be wobbly and when they're ready to follow he leads them into a massive circular room.

Now this one looks...ominous. They're in an indented circular area, an ampitheater. Standing above them, around the circle, are masses of cultists.

About twenty other conscripts, still in normal clothes like them are standing in the circular area. Some have hazy expressions of uncaring nihilism. Some look scared. A few look bitter, as if they resent their treatment slightly. (After that pain trial, who wouldn't?)

The door slams shut behind them and the guide stands on a metal disc on the ground. He extends his hand and reveals himself to be a Braalian by levitating the disc and himself up above them.

"Conscripts, now is your final and most important trial," he says. "You have proven your sincerity. You have shown us your endurance of pain and how it's given you conviction."

He smiles and it's not a nice smile.

"Now you have the generous gift of having a chance to demonstrate your utility."

Edited 2017-10-06 07:39 (UTC)

A forcefield suddenly passes over their heads, and over the walls, leaving them trapped inside the circle. Now on the wall above them an old woman steps forward. It isn't her age or haggard appearance that makes her so hideously ugly, but the energy about her, the pure malice that pours out from her.

Her malice is why she was chosen for the role she's in.

"My name is Granny Goodness, and I will be administering your final exam. This final test is to weed out the weak and any naughty children that try to infiltrate our ranks for their own purposes."

She wags a finger at them.

"Being willing to die for the cause is not enough. You still have to fight those who would oppose us. Very few of you likely have such skills already. Fortunately, Granny can teach you. Granny has braved the terrors of the Necropolis of Apokolips to learn the old ways from those long gone."

"Glory to the old ways!" calls out the guide. "All is one in Apokolips! The New God is all!"

The crowd repeats the chant.

"There are three ways out of the arena," Granny Goodness continues. "Those who kill or make their opponents crawl can join us as honored comrades. Those who die will be freed by facing the oblivion they so rightly deserve, sooner than they'd hoped, a gracious gift. And those that are defeated but spared will live out the rest of their days in the bowels of Apokolips as hunger dogs, as the Lowlies that turn its great engines. The darkness will be your home, and the whip will be your master, because only the strong deserve to live in the light to see the universe end."

Apparently, the Catastrophists have decided to start emulating some seriously fucked up shit from history.

A hole appears in the dirt floor and a platform rises up. It's nearly overflowing with weapons. Some are likely familiar, others are alien. All of them are bladed or blunt weapons. The only projectile weapons are limited ones, like bows and arrows or throwing knives. Not guns.

"Now, fight for the glory of Apokolips! Fight for your right to stand with us as we bring about the end!"

"Motherfucker."

Kyou's legs are already moving as soon as he sees the weapons, which helps him get the jump one some of the other conscripts, who are still blinking in shock.

He's fast. Fast enough that he might be the first one there.

We're going to have to be careful about this. If we fight like we normally fight, they'll peg us as moles. We're going to have to get real creative to win without making it look easy.

The next thought comes in a rush.

Also, what weapon do you want? Dibs on the katana.

Blunt weapon. Look, I know they're here to kill each other and themselves, but we can't kill them. We're going to have to go with the crawl or defeat options as best we can.

She knows that if it really comes down to it, they can kill. With her skillset, though, they should be able to make sure these people have a chance at being helped.

And they definitely can't be too good, like he pointed out.

The first conscript who rushes her instead of the pile of weapons gets sent to the ground quickly. She doesn't even have a weapon - she just uses her fists.

Your level of confidence in me is staggering. He retorted as he looked up at her from the mat, unable to help himself after noting the doubt in her tone. His own tone was playful but his expression unchanging; controlling his outward reaction and being careful of what he said out loud was a task he was used to, controlling his immediate thoughts was not.

As Pidge lays her hand over his, he can't help flinching slightly, not enough to be seen, but likely enough to be felt. Touch was always something of a shock, but he was at least used to it enough by now to not instinctively recoil or react beyond that initial flinch. He was about to turn his hand over to play along with the act, when Sister Ellora plunges him in to the past and he instead grips the mat.

The crack about his eidetic memory and penchant for obsessing over the past had been exaggerated but wasn't too far from the truth. Slipping into thoughts of that past still happened often, but eidetic memories weren't as perfect as they were claimed to be. He might have been capable of keeping specific information strait better than most, but memories were still like old tapes, where the more you played them over, the more susceptible they become to twisting and warping. And this was nothing like simply remembering the past. It really was like reliving it with every emotion sharply amplified.

Once again he was back in the confines of Craydl, spending literal centuries studying his families history, training, comparing himself to his original and struggling to be better; now with the full knowledge that the entire mission, and most of the stories he had been told about his family, were false.

He was masquerading as his genetic original, watching as Max's health deteriorated and he grew closer to the death he'd helped draw him to the brink of. Every day become a little more painful as he grew closer to the man and continued to watch him struggle. There was a growing regret now that he didn't have the capacity to feel at the time, having been too focused on his plan and the unshakable self-assurance that he would be capable of saving him and reversing everything he'd done. That he would be able to prove that he was better than Bart, heal Max and keep this life all in one fell swoop.

And then it all fell apart, everything that happened in the speedforce replayed with excruciating detail. Max admitting he loved him like a son only to call him Bart, over and over and over until he finally snapped. He watched himself nearly kill him again, all because he felt slighted. Max stopped him, tried to talk him down, offered understanding, a chance to redeem himself and be a part of their family. And the old man's expression when he simply threw it back in his face stuck painfully in his mind.

Bart's words after he'd managed to storm in and almost save the day, stung as hard as they ever did. They were the one memory Sister Ellora didn't need to exaggerate. Those words had become a constant unpleasant companion, that he feared would follow him for the rest of his existence.

And finally, he was standing in front of his creator, the one who'd condemned him to this empty singleminded existence. After months of planning, of digging up the truth for himself, of lashing out and undermining him from the shadows, he finally stood in front of the man for the first time in his life. And with the exchange of only a few scathing sentences, he could feel himself already crumble under his words and presence. Feeling every bit the traitorous petulant child his progenitor accused him of being, even as a steady underlying anger still boiled over into his own responses.

Throughout this, while he said nothing aloud, Thad's projected thoughts become an incoherent jumble, an onslaught of ramblings and reactions spat out at superspeed as he got lost in the memories.

His internal aggravated roar over the stupid no-killing rule is snarly enough to almost sound inhuman.

Ugh, what is it with superheroes and their not-killing-people fixation?!

This could probably be considered an exception to the stupid rule, but given that they've been handed the option of just humiliating their enemies, he can't really justify killing them. They're mostly civilians and with how good a fighter he is, there's no way he could make the case that he was outmatched and needed to be that brutal to save his own life or save Carolina's. He absolutely can put these people down without killing them and without giving away that he knows how to fight.

So instead of picking up a katana, he picks up a bo, and grabs and tosses her a baseball bat. Those will be easier to hurt people with while still faking that they don't know anything about fighting. He starts swinging the bo more like a bat than using it the way he should.

It's pretty obvious that this whole thing is to weed out Scipos not comfortable with attacking civilians or to ferret us out by accidentally showing off we've got actual moves but it's like they forgot that knee caps are a thing, he says, casually slamming the bow into the kneecap of one of the other wannabe cultists.

Following rules isn't a bad thing.

Her tone is almost sing song, catching the bat. The one who attacked her gets knocked out - look, a gentle tap to the head is nice, right? Right. Don't worry about it.

Scipos would worry about hurting them even with kneecaps. We don't. She is worried about hurting them, don't get her wrong - but she also knows her own strength. And she knows that a little pain will go a long ways for the greater good.

God, she hopes she doesn't have to say that aloud.

But she holds the bat - not correctly, of course, but with a firm enough grip - and makes sure to aim for the knees or the arm. A broken arm is also recoverable, but she doesn't want to send anyone into shock and make it hard for them to be helped.

She also can't stop the other cultists from killing each other. But at least for the ones she does fight - she doesn't kill them.

Oh.

Yeah.

It probably would have been a good idea to deactivate the coms. Really, just an extremely great idea. She probably could have even made it look like she was just...nervously fidgeting with her ear. Instead, now she has to ride it out, just listening to him scream in her brain.

She can't even make out most of it. It's like watching the last action movie before the late night marathon ends: just a lot of bad noise and jumbled scenes and she can't follow what he's thinking at all. Harsh emotions about people she has never heard of before bringing him to mistakes she can't really understand because it's going too fast and she has no context for any of this.

This probably just looks like worry over her lover to the cultists, but she can only hold on until he calms down.

"Yes, you understand," says the guide. "It was all so very pointless, wasn't it? The suffering you caused to escape and the suffering you escaped from. Understanding the senselessness is what our organization is all about. There's only one way to end it."

As Sister Ellora helps Thad up, Brother Rellick gestures to Pidge to take his place. The guide hands her a bite guard.

"You may want to put this in your mouth so you don't bite off your own tongue."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 3 of 4

THE NINTH GATE - [modplot]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

this will be a short exchange

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

thiiiis is late

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject