Can You Hear The People Scream? (OPEN)

[cancer]

Such a charming city, even more so late at night, when chaos was abound, illegal drug dealing, gun dealing, overall black marketing was a favorite of this place. That gave rise to the question, what civilian in their right mind would remain in such a place? It was human ignorance, their will to defy all odds against them and continue fighting on for a happy day, to survive another day with their families. Of course, sometimes some gave into fear, into insanity and gave into the darkness of their hearts and became mindless villains. Shooting a man over him giving the person a bad look, theft of small items to seem defiant and cool with the children, teenagers of the age. Of course with all this criminal activity there was also corruption in the police force as well. Such lovely chaos, everywhere, something the tetravirus took pleasure in. And the best part of it all, no one was here to stop him, at least his moral enemy wasn’t. Zee Captain, the name was a sour spot for the matrix, how he wished to kill the man but it seemed like killing him would be impossible, at least here and now he would be able to turn organics into himself, to increase his once large mass, which he had lost when fighting Zee Captain.


But for now, he tried to disguise himself as human, which wouldn’t work too well in this city. He would be seen as one of those freaks running around, shot at and arrested. That’s why he was more mobile at the dark, which with chaos higher at night as opposed to at evening, it was a wonder why police didn’t patrol more during this time of day. But why think of things that could bring about one’s being seen? It was for the best after all. The Biomatrix had already somewhat set up a kind of system in the city. His roots were connected to him but placed in different areas, undetectable by technology and a person had to be looking for the roots to see them in the first place. Red little strings which passed in cracks, hidden in nooks and crannies. He could practically hear everything that was going on in the city, practically anything aside from top-secret mumbo jumbo that he paid no mind to anyway. In his timeline humans kill themselves off so he wasn’t too concerned about military or other forms of operations at work, unless they directly affected him. From what he knew, human had very little, if any contact with alien species, being the primitive life forms they were after all. Who would care about them anyway?


The Biomatrix stood atop of a building. A hand in a pocket of the root covered suit, he felt like humans were accustomed to do this. The other hand held a pomegranate. He took a bite from the fruit, skin, core, seeds and all. It was an accustomed lunch for him to eat. For once he could eat it in peace without someone trying to talk him to death. It was more of the texture as opposed to the taste for the Biomatrix, he wouldn’t taste things, just feel them, which was a blessing and a curse at the same time from what he understood of taste. But that was also something primitive of humans, obesity was rampant because of both lust for the taste and because of comfort food, or whatever female entities called them. Humans were both above him and below him, with their weird ideas, and other forms of humanity they claimed to have. But was a human without humanity just an entity, or were they always the same. Of course humans also had a very different justice system as opposed to what the Biomatrix was used to! He finished the fruit and lurked along building tops.


The Biomatrix lurked along the building tops until he arrived at his destination. He had heard of human entities shipping out guns, drugs and other forms of items illegal to trade in. He slipped in through a back door after assuming shape of a very long snake to slither in through the key hole. He assumed shape back to his human form and walks into the light from the darkness. Both hands inside of the suit’s pocket, a left hand, and a right hand, belonging to each pocket. The humans stopped working and picked up rifles, pistols and other items used in combat. Humans and their guns, amusing. They were so dependent on weapons to fight because of their weak frame. He just took a human shape to attempt to blend in, he didn’t like it though. He would of preferred his normal mass but that was out of question for now. His train of thought was ruined when seemingly the leader of the gang shouted at the Biomatrix. The human questioned what he was and to leave in a rather violent tone. During so The Biomatrix had a red dot trained onto his body, followed by more. He stood unmoving, bullets would have no effect on him of course, so he didn’t worry. But he could feel the terror and dread of the humans, something he took delight in.


”I Am The Avatar Of Biomatrix 117. Prepare To Be Added To My Mass. Human Entities.”


After he stated the sentence, the humans felt more dread then they had before. One shouted at him that he was going to be turned into something called Swiss Cheese. Then bullets rang out and hit the matrix, head on, with surprising accuracy. Some bullets went through his head, through the chest, arms, legs, lower body. No area of him was sparred. However after the smoke in the air clear, he was still standing there. The wounds then closed and a bladed tendril shot out of his body and impaled one of the men in the chest and brought him into the Biomatrix. Then after a few seconds, a second humanoid entity fell out of the Biomatrix’ body, a red root attached the two, but that wasn’t visible. Then gunfire blasted at both of them, but the second entity, the one the Biomatrix had just killed and added to his body jumped down from the ramp and ran forward to start striking done its former allies. A sadistic smile crept onto the Biomatrix’ face, this was going to be a very, very fun night indeed.

[lia]

Since she'd hopped a train out of Purgatory, so to speak, Lia had really begun to see what Annie had meant when she'd said she had done more living after her life had ended than she'd done while she was alive. Granted, it wasn't like a whole lot of people could even see here...but it was more than she had expected. Turns out, there are vampires, and werewolves, and other ghosts, and demons, and all sorts of ridiculous supernatural things all over the world. Them, and one incredibly special, absolutely genius girl who had managed to do...well, god and Oswin only know what, but the fact of the matter was, a real, living, breathing human could see her now. Which was absolutely brilliant and Lia loved it far more than she'd thought she would. It didn't hurt that Oswin was -- in her own words -- a total screaming genius, or that they had more in common than they'd ever share aloud. Truthfully, Oswin was probably the best friend Lia had ever had.

Sad that she'd had to die to meet the other girl, wasn't it?

But, as much as Lia would have been content to haunt the TARDIS day in and day out -- it was absolutely huge once you got to exploring -- the rest of the...well, she wasn't quite sure she could call it a ship, but the rest of the people staying on the TARDIS...most of them were human. Or at the very least alive, which meant that Lia was the only one that literally never ate, or slept, or did any of those other lovely things that come with the territory of having a proper body. So every once in a while, while Oswin's attention was elsewhere, Lia would slip off. She was getting far better at her rent-a-ghosting as Annie had called their ability to appear wherever they wanted to be. She couldn't quite cross oceans or anything yet, not that she'd tried more than the one time where she'd ended up lost and surprisingly exhausted, but most anywhere else, she could handle with ease.

She wasn't a particularly sentimental person. Not when it came to most things, anyways. But death, well...death always had a special spot in her heart. One that was already broken and wounded from watching her family suffer, not even able to offer them any comfort, or tell them she was in a better place. It would have been a lie, anyways, but she would have done it in a heartbeat to spare them even just a little pain. Would it really have been too much to ask? Apparently the answer had been 'yes.'

She'd never told Oswin about exactly what her time in Purgatory had entailed. She'd mentioned the solitude, sure, the fact that she had been alone there...but not that she had spent the months following her death trapped in her old home, watching her family crumble under the strain of dealing with her murder. Her still unsolved murder. She didn't doubt that the other girl could handle the knowledge -- she was strong, too, on top of being absolutely brilliant -- it was more that...well, she didn't want to bring it up. There was nothing to be done about it anyways.

Her personal experience with death had been hell, very nearly literally. Which was why, every once in a while, Lia would do what she could to make sure that wasn't the case for other people. Everyone deserved to have someone with them to ease the transition. Maybe being out of Purgatory had made her soft. She hadn't thought like this a few months ago. Maybe the people she had met here had changed her for the better? Regardless, as she cast one last glance around the center console of the TARDIS, Lia gave a faint smile, before disappearing.

She reappeared not a moment later in a completely unfamiliar place. It wasn't that uncommon. It tended to happen when you rent-a-ghosted without a proper destination in mind. More often than not, it dropped her right where she needed to be. She'd heard one of the Doctors talk about the TARDIS like that...how she would send them where they needed to be, rather than where they wanted to go, and for a moment, she wondered if it was the TARDIS that was doing this with her. Helping her help people.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of sheer chaos. Gunshots, she realized as a bullett passed harmlessly through her, on its way to its destination. Huddled in the corner, curled up, shaking, and looking shit scared, was a man. Or, rather, the ghost of a man. Following her gaze to what had his so bleeding terrified, Lia's eyes widened slightly at the sight of a...red and black...monster was the only word she could think to use to describe it. Split open in grotesque ways, attaching itself to corpses and... She looked away sharply. She couldn't bear to watch any longer. It couldn't see her, and it couldn't hurt her, and there was nothing she could do to stop to from doing...whatever it was doing. So instead, she focused her attention completely and utterly on the dead man.

His wide-eyed gaze fell on her as she approached, and she offered him a soft smile. "Wh-what the fuck is that?!" he demanded of her between sobs, pointing and gesturing wildly at the beast in the center of the room. She could only shake her head in response. "It doesn't matter," she soothed gently, "it can't hurt you anymore." Poor bloke. Judging by where he was, and the state of the place, and well, a whole number of other things, he hadn't exactly been an upstanding citizen when he was alive...but that didn't mean he deserved to face death alone. Especially after being killed by...that thing.

"Oh g- oh god," he'd groaned, seeming to barely even process that Lia had spoken, much less what she'd said. "That's...that's me, isn't it?" Another wild gesture from him, and this time, Lia did turn to see what he was pointing at. His body. Being controlled by the monster. Christ. "But...but I'm right here! How can that be me if I'm right here?!" He was getting hysterical now, sobbing and shaking, and she was pretty sure if he could have wet himself, he would have. One nice thing about being dead, anyways. "I'm sorry..." she started, reaching a hand out to the man. Trying to draw his attention back to her instead. "I know it's not what you want to hear, but you've..." she trailed off even as he looked up at her expectantly. "You're dead." He gave a keening wail, almost like she'd just killed him again, and she couldn't help a cringe.

"Hey, come on now, none of that." He didn't respond well to the soothing, so she tried another route. "A big tough guy like you can't handle being a ghost, and a little thing like me can?" She raised her brows, giving him a cheeky grin. That seemed to get his attention at least. "You...you're dead too...?" Not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but at least he was catching on. She nodded. "Did...did it get you too?" Some of his terror had been replaced, she was surprised to note, by not only curiosity, but sadness. Sympathy. He felt sorry for her, being dead. Giving a faint, humorless smile, Lia shook her head again. "No...a different kind of monster got me." The man was silent for a long time, and Lia was starting to wonder if shock had gotten to him. But when he finally spoke again, it wasn't anything like what she had expected to hear. "...I'm sorry." Cocking her head to the side, Lia blinked several times before responding with a faint, albiet genuine, smile. "It's alright. Really." He watched her, silent again for a few moments, before nodding.

"There's a good lad," she teased lightly, before offering him her hand once more. "Come on, now, let's get you up." A few false starts later, and he was on his feet -- absolutely towering over her and her modest 5'3" -- and looking down at her expectantly. A faint sound and glow from the wall beside her told her all she needed to know, even through the sounds of guns firing and horrific cries: his door was here. "...what now?" Giving his hand a gently squeeze, she nodded to the door. As soon as he saw it, just like so many others, a look of realization dawned across his features. "That's...that's for me...isn't it...?"

"That's your door," she confirmed with a nod, still holding his hand, providing the silent comfort he wasn't likely to accept expressed aloud. "It's time for you to move on." His grip on her hand tightened, and as he stepped forward, she followed. As she watched, he lifted a hand, touching the faded wood of the door, the one tailored just for him. "...move on to where?" His voice was small, timid and unsure. It gave a sharp tug at her heartstrings. "Just...on." It was the only answer she could give. She didn't know what would happen to him once he walked through that door. All she knew was that it was his time -- obviously, otherwise they wouldn't be standing in front of a door -- and wherever he ended up...well, it couldn't be worse than watching his hijacked body beating the shit out of his friends, could it? "It'll be alright," she nodded, "I promise."

The man just nodded, finally letting go of her hand, and reaching for the doorknob. He paused, holding the metal in his hand, but not yet pulling the door open, looking over his shoulder at her, expression unsure, almost pleading. "Go on," she urged, inclining her head towards the door. Another moment of hesitation, but finally, finally he pulled the door open. He looked almost startled by the bright, white-blue light that poured out from the doorway, but slowly his features melted into a smile as he stepped forward, crossing the threshold. The last thing Lia heard before the door shut behind him was a faint call of thanks.

With a faint smile, the ghost watched his door vanish, its purpose served, before turning at casting a glance at the monster wreaking havoc in the center of the warehouse. There were sure to be more deaths here tonight...that was an inevitability, it seemed. But truth be told, dealing with the recently deceased...especially the ones who were so traumatized by their deaths...it was exhausting. She had helped one man move on and find peace, but she didn't know that she could handle the rest if they were killed in such rapid succession. Besides, crowds of ghosts were almost always more interested in each other than any outsiders. Hearing a sickening crunching sound, Lia squeezed her eyes shut, looking away. As much as she wanted to help every single soul that died, this situation was too much. Feigned badassery aside, she couldn't just sit idly and watch people die, waiting for them to reappear as ghosts. That might have been Mitchell and George's thing, but it absolutely wasn't hers.

Exhaling in a shaky sigh, the ghost shook her head, already knowing that these screams...the pained cries of dying men...would haunt her for the rest of eternity. Just like her own death. Choking back a sob of her own, Lia vanished from the warehouse, no idea where she would reappear this time.

[johnseever]

Gotham City had became more of a headache for Terry. What with Bruce taking care of things within Wayne Enterprises. Terry, was given the task of begin the protector of Gotham City. Which was no different than when he was back in his time, but only thing was, the technology he had was not here. So there was a lot of old schooling that Terry was doing with a young Bruce. Which was freaky in and of itself. Terry knew Bruce as an older man who had given up being Batman. Now he was a younger man and Terry could literally not go toe-to-toe with him too much. "To think that 30 years can change someone so quick," he said to himself as he landed on a roof of a building in the more seeder part of town.

Why was Terry, actually Batman doing here? He had heard of the movement of illegal weapon and products from one of the buildings and was helping Commis Gordon with this increased stuff. "At least I know where Barbra gets her style from," he adds as looks around. Looking around at those out at this time of night? A few bums and street urchins, nothing really to worry about, until he hears something over the police scanner...

All units, report of gun fire in the area of Quintion and Wolf. Caller said that it was a lot of gun fire, like a small army. Any units in the area, report and call for support. SWAT units have be deployed.

Blinking, Terry whistled, "Quinton and Wolf?" he says as he pulls up a map and looks at it. "I am ten blocks away from that." he says to himself as he jumps and the rocket boots activate, as Terry gets the wings out of the suit to allow him to fly. Looking, Terry watches the reports and hears the gun fire now, in addition to the sirens from the police. What he also notices, is that people are running, and running fast from the area. Thinking, he ponders, "Hopefully they bring in the Army as well, cause that is a lot of gun fire," he comments as he lands on a building to see what is going on.

Jumping from where he is, Terry lands on the side of the building and activates the magnets in his boots to hang on as he looks into the window of the building and blinks at what he sees. "What the..." he states simply, loud enough for anyone near him to hear. Touching the side of his head, he activates his radio and tunes it to the Gotham Police Frequency. "This is Batman. You better bring more than SWAT. Better call out the army or the Justice League." he mentions as he hears the com chatter and sighs. "Police never change, no matter which time you are from," he adds as he thinks on what to do or how to handle this mass of ... whatever it is and the things that it is controlling. Opening one of the windows, he enters and moves along the ceiling and readies a batarang.

Taking aim, he throws them at the puppets. The batarang heads right for the puppet that is taking out the gun runners and is not being stopped by gunfire, specifically for the the legs,/knee area. Attaching to the bottom of the ceiling rafter, Terry speaks. "There are easier ways at taking out the garbage," he says simply as he stands like a bat, upside down.

[cancer]

The Biomatrix had heard the sirens before they even drew close, roots stuck in the cracks of the roads had signaled him. How amusing indeed. His second avatar formed a bladed claw and was about to strike at the chest of one of his former allies until a bladed object swept in and sliced apart it’s ankle. The Biomatrix never had much in the way of defense against much objects attacking him, which he compensated with his regeneration and other abilities. Once the blade sliced through the leg the leg itself shot out tendrils to reattach itself to the fallen limb, making it appear as if the damage had never been done in the first place, however the attack from the claw made contact, only with the man’s stomach as opposed to the chest, turning him also into an added body of the Biomatrix. The main body’s attention turned to the sudden dweller of the dark. More organics to add to his mass, and with the humans and their guns, even more shall be added after that. This night was getting better every second, of course, The Biomatrix at the moment was in his more grumpy mood so his emotional display would be neutral by all means.


”Greetings, Bat Entity. Your Injustices Against The Union Of Invaders Is So Noted, Your Criminal Case Will Be Processed Shortly.”


Such were the injustices of humanity. Attacking alien entities that had a much higher law system as opposed to the human’s justice system. Sparing the lives of known criminals, letting them leave after so called "good behavior” and they did not execute known criminals either. Of course for now his other Avatar was currently attempting to wipe out more of the criminals while the Biomatrix kept his attention on the new comer. To the Biomatrix personally it seemed foolish to disguise oneself, or to go in costume. Which he technically was in such a costume but it was mainly because he couldn’t take shape to his normal and preferred form as he lacked enough mass and total organics to do so. At least here he wouldn’t be as bothered as he was in the human wasteland. The disconnected Avatar deemed “Lifealope” and then Zee Captain weren’t here and in The Biomatrix’ view, those two were the only one things that could stand up to him, for now at least. But this timeline was far better then the one he was in. He wasn’t shaken and wondering where he was, he had detected the special anomaly before hand but now his mind was rambling about matters when instead he should have been processing the Bat Entity’s case.


”After Review Your Acts And Evidence Against You, I Have Deemed It Your Crimes Shall Not Go Unpunished, Have A Good Evening, Bat Entity.”


Of course how the problem would be dealt with was fairly easy but he had his fill for the night, he had already attracted law officials and other masked beings. Which was fine in itself, their primitive technology wouldn’t be able to contain him. However he had decided on the means of punishment he would try to give to batman. However he also needed a back up plan so part of one of the other avatars split off and formed simply a crow while the other two bonded together forming a fairly larger organic mass. The crow then silently, without gather attention simply flew out as a more of a back-up scape goat. But there was still a need of dealing out punishment to the more at hand enemy, the man in the bat suit. Of course the Biomatrix had already had punishment planned out, a curse for batman but a blessing for the Biomatrix. Bladed tendrils shot from the main avatar at batman’s chest, three more shot out of the body to attack from either side or if he tried to jump down would get hit. The punishment would be death and then absorption of course, only if the blades themselves made contact and killed the bat suited man. But in the end the Biomatrix kept to his more, monotone of conversation as he always did. But he mainly had a both comment and question in mind.

”You Shall Be Added To My Collective Mass, Resistance Is Futile. Tell Me Bat Entity, What Powers Are Granted Upon You To Stand Before Me, Unafraid?

[/size]