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<Cecilia> Cecilia crept down a very narrow, dilapidated hallway with flickering lights. ["God, this simulation is really creepy, May..."], muttered Cecilia. ["Reminds me of Silent Hill."]
<@Mayday> Mayday flashed her torch around the darkness, double-checking behind herself before responding, ["Yeah...I've never actually touched this sim before.."], she shuddered at the 'Silent Hill' reference, ["Just...let me know if you spot anything - I'm negative for contacts this end."], she continued walking down the corridor.
<Cecilia> Cecilia cringed at the virtual mice skipping along the edges of the hall. ["I don't see anything this end. Not that it's easy with all the flickering flourescent lights. Christ, do you think someone actually might've programmed a zombie apocalypse sim?"]
<Cecilia> Actually, knowing some of the students at this school that was a very likely scenario.
<@Mayday> ["I don't know...it doesn't really help that all of Eddie's programes are 'Variety Level 'x''..."], Mayday replied over the radio, followed by the sound of something breaking. ["Woah...."], she flashed her torch light over a doorway, swearing blind something had rushed by, ["I think there's something out there. East side, headed towards you in the west: check your sides."]
<Cecilia> Cecilia felt her heart-rate begin to increase. ["I don't see
anything,"] she remarked, double checking her sides. She listened
hard. ["Or hear anything,"] she whispered.
<@Mayday> A shadowed figure approached from the doorway at the end of Cecilia's corridor, face obscured in shadow, but twisted smile visible in the flickering light.
<@Mayday> ["I'm sure whatever it was, it was headed your way..."], Mayday affirmed, ["Just...keep an eye out."]
<Cecilia> Cecilia crept closer to the wall and stopped moving. Listening hard. She could just hear...something...very
faintly. Like a whisper that she couldn't quite make out...
<Cecilia> Run, run as fast as you can...
<Cecilia> Cecilia looked around, but she couldn't see anything. ["I...think. I might..."] Hear something... ["But I'm not...sure..."].
<@Mayday> We're right here...
<@Mayday> Mayday sighed, taking a deep breath, ["I'm headed to you: splitting up was a bad idea."], the line went down as she started jogging towards where she'd sworn the shadow was headed.
<@Mayday> Beside Cecilia, a floorboard creaked.
<Cecilia> Cecilia swung around, but nothing was there. You're all alone... She stared down the hallway. The dark was punctuated by only a few flashes every few seconds. But for one split second Cecilia thought she saw something standing in the hallway before the lights went out again.
<Cecilia> She gasped, tensing for a fight but when the lights flickered and lit up the hall again nobody was there. I could've
sworn that there was a man standing there , she thought. But it couldn't have been a man, there was something...wrong with how he was standing, how he looked... Grandma, what big teeth you have...
<@Mayday> Mayday appeared from the doorway at the end of the hall, waving in the flickering lights with her torch, "Hey! Did you see anything come by?", she felt a little tense, glancing around to make sure she wasn't followed, suddenly hit with her Spider-Sense.
<Cecilia> Cecilia jumped at the sound of Mayday's voice. "Jesus!" She gasped. "I...I thought I..." She looked back down the hall where she'd seen that...thing. "I thought I did, but...I think my mind's playing tricks on me."
<@Mayday> Before she could manage a reply, the shadow around Mayday seemed to reach out with jet black tendrils and latch onto her, pulling her through the plasterboard wall and under the floorboards. A low screech could be heard alongside a sinister cackling as she descended, in a violent crash, out of sight.
<Cecilia> Cecilia swung around. "Mayday?" She started down the hall. ["May, do you copy?"] Nothing but static on the radio. Her heart began to skip beats. "May! If this is some sort of joke it's not fucking funny! Cut it out, I mean it!"
<@Mayday> Mayday coughed as her lungs filled with dust, struggling up to her feet and glancing upwards in panic: her instinct was to raise her wrist and prepare to web whatever it was that had thrown her before she glanced a tar-like substance slip into the split between floors: ["CECILIA: HE'S IN THE FLOOR!"]
<Cecilia> Cecilia blinked. ["He? What the fuck are you-"] Cecilia didn't have time to finish that sentence though, as soon as the words were out of her mouth a black, tar-like substance seized her around the ankle and yanked down. Hard. "FUCK!" She screamed, shielding up just in time to avoid having her body splintered
as she was yanked through the floor.
<@Mayday> There was a more audible laugh, echoing from the darkness as the floorboards began to splinter and writhe - black blades shot out of them, approaching Cecilia quickly. Mayday darted over to her and helped her up, "Get up!"
<Cecilia> Cecilia grabbed onto Mayday and began to run, half-dragging her friend behind her. "We gotta get out of here! We're in over our heads!" She screamed as black ooze began to seep out of the walls and slither towards them. "SHIT!"
<@Mayday> Mayday agreed, before a black clawed hand shot out of the wall beside them and slammed her head first through the adjacent one. A tyrannous, jet-black monster followed the arm through the wall, dragging Mayday backwards and tossing her aside before turning to yeahCecilia, screaming a warcry that seemed to come from all directions past an unaturally large maw, tearing at the sides to reveal rows of sword-like teeth.
<Cecilia> Cecilia's scream of terror mixed with the other-worldly howl like an awful refrain. She tried to bring up a shield, trying to stop impending death only to have the black ooze constrict around the shield, breaking it and crushing her.
<Cecilia> "Help! ARGGHH!" She gasped, struggling against the monster. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe and she was going to die. Oh God... Say goodnight...
<@Mayday> Mayday sat up, recoiling in horror as the terrifying beast turned towards her. She stood slowly, taking short breaths before it threw a lash of webbing her way; with a gasp, she managed to tap into her senses and dodge them with a series of cartwheels, disappearing into a side room.
<@Mayday> "JACK BE NIMBLE...", the creature 'giggled' maniacly, giving Cecila a tight squeeze before dropping her and stalking slowly away and after the hooded redhead.
<Cecilia> Cecilia slammed down on the floor, gasping. Oh God. OhGodohGodohGod. She got to her feet, shaking. "May! Look out!" She cried. Oh God, it was after May. Somewhere some terrible high power had decided to spare her for some unfathomable reason and decided to kill someone else close to her- again. "DON'T TAKE HER YOU MONSTER! IT'S ME YOU WANT!" She screamed at the thing's back.
<@Mayday> There was a sound of struggling from the other room as crashes were heard through the damaged walls. "JACK BE SWIFT!", the voice laughed from the blackness, followed by a black tendril slicing vertically across the corridor and leaving a violent slash in the walls. "JACK JUMP OVER THE CANDLESTICK."; there was a horrific crash from the other room, followed with a scream from Mayday.
<Cecilia> Cecilia ran out into the destroyed corridor and threw a shield directly at the thing's body. "MAY!" The black tentrils shot out and grabbed her again. "NOOO!" She screamed, as she was slammed into the floor.
<@Mayday> "JACK JUMP HIGH.", the voice cackled as the creature slammed Mayday upwards, "JACK JUMP LOW...", it pushed Mayday into the floor and out of sight.
<@Mayday> The creature turned, shambling towards Cecilia in the flickering light and standing above her, its mouth opening and revealing the bloodied face of Eddie Brock, smiling with eyes almost too large for his head gazing down at her, "Jack fall down...", he raised a hooded body up behind himself, "...and break his toe."
<@Mayday> The neck was snapped with a malicious crunch, and the body was thrown aside into the darkness.
<Cecilia> Cecilia couldn't move. She was shaking so badly she couldn't even lift herself up. "D-Don't...STOP! JUST STOP!"
<@Mayday> Eddie approached her, reaching down with unnaturally disproportionate arms and slowly grsaping Cecilia's neck, lifting her closer to his face.......
<@Mayday>
YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT
<@Mayday> The face of Eddie seemed to wince as black tendrils coated it, and the visage of Venom re-appeared, its mouth opened slowly around Cecilia's face, tongue sliding across her cheek and wrapping around the back of her head slowly.<Cecilia> Cecilia felt her vision beginning to tunnel. Oh God, please, grant me the mercy of a quick death, you owe me that much...
<@Mayday> The program froze, Venom suddenly fizzling out of existence as the surroundings disolved into a digital haze. Danger's voice sounded over the tannoy: "Critical Wound sustained; Program Terminated.", Cecilia was left standing in the chromatic interior of the DR.
<@Mayday> "Cecilia?", Mayday whispered, approaching from the sidelines, "Cee, are you alright?"
<Cecilia> Cecilia couldn't move. She wasn't shaking anymore. She wasn't even blinking. "I..." She whispered. "I died."
<@Mayday> Mayday took off her goggles and dropped them as she kneeled beside Cecilia, "No, no you didn't. We've been through this, remember?", she was still trembling slightly at her 'demise', "I-it's just a program, remember? Just a game..."
<Cecilia> Cecilia sat down heavily. "I know...I just...It didn't...It felt so...real... Like it was actually happening..."
<Cecilia> "W-What was that thing?" She whispered.
<@Mayday> "It's the first of Eddie Brock's programs.", Mayday told her, "Danger: Control Panel please?", a holographic blue screen appeared beside her, "Look, see? 'Variety Level zero-one.", she frowned at the description, "....it's him."
<Cecilia> "W-What?!" Exclaimed Cecilia. "You mean that...was Eddie? E-Eddie Brock?!" She shook her head. "Oh my God! What the fuck was that then?! I thought he was an X-Man!"
<@Mayday> Mayday carried on reading before she answered, "...It's a training file for how to deal with him if he ever loses control of his power.", she felt her heart fill with guilt, "God...I...I-I had no idea..."
<Cecilia> "Oh God..." She covered her mouth with her hands. "I-Is he really that powerful?"
<@Mayday> "T-there's an addendum: it's a video log.", Mayday looked at Cecilia, "Should we play it?"
<Cecilia> Cecilia nodded distantly. "Yeah...I t-think so. I think...he w-wanted this to be found. Why else m-make a video?"
<@Mayday> Mayday clicked the holo-screen's link, watching the screen display a picture of Eddie Brock, speaking into a webcam in a dim lit room;
<@Mayday> "My name is Edward Charles Brock, codename 'Venom'. If you're watching this, you've found my training simulators. More to the point, level zero-one."
<@Mayday> "The program is a simulator of what might happen if I ever lose control of what Professor Charles Xavier has called the 'Symbiotic Conciousness' that has been a part of my psyche since my powers manifest."
<Cecilia> Cecilia stared into her pseudo-killer's face. He didn't look like a monster. But monsters never did...
<@Mayday> After a few breaths, Eddie continued: "A-at first...at first I thought it was just an anger issue. Maybe amplified by my X-Gene. I was wrong. Over the last year, it's become harder and harder to control: I've started taking stimulants, a cocktail of tranquilizers in order to calm myself when I reach breaking point, but...it's becoming harder to push it down these days."
<@Mayday> "So, I created this. A simulator that represents all the things I hide behind the drugs and bravado: the truth is, this is...", another deep breath followed, Eddie looked into the camera, "...this is who I am. A-and you have to know. You all have to be able to stop me if this ever happens. And I promise, I will always try and stop myself, every day. But...if it comes down to it..."
<Cecilia> Cecilia closed her eyes. "Stop the tape. Please-!"
<@Mayday> Mayday stopped the tap before Eddie's message could play out. She turned to Cecilia, "...are you alright?"
<Cecilia> "No, I just...I can't watch it anymore. I can't. It's like...looking at someone's suicide note or reading a deadman's
diary...I just..I can't..."
<@Mayday> "I-it's ok.", Mayday nodded, "I understand that.", she put a gentle hand on Cecilia's shoulder, "I-I'm sorry...I didn't know..."
<Cecilia> "I k-know, it's not like he gave descriptions along with his programs," said Cecilia quietly. "A-Are you alright?"
<@Mayday> Mayday nodded wryly, "...I think so.", she took a few breaths, closing the video window. There was something that hurt about seeing someone as strong as Eddie hurting so much. "I'll...I'll be alright."
<Cecilia> Cecilia sighed deeply. "Fuck..." She looked at May. "We have to show someone this. Someone in charge...they should know..."
<@Mayday> "...maybe.", she looked back, "...I feel as if I'm betraying him. I-I mean, maybe they already know, I don't know...", Mayday looked back at the simulator program list and sighed as she read the name of it again, "....yeah...yeah, maybe we should."
<Cecilia> "We have to," said Cecilia. "This is a cry for help if I ever saw one..." She shuddered. "We'd be hurting him more by remaining silent. He won't like it, but in the end it's for his own good."
<@Mayday> Mayday took a deep breath, "I...I guess so.", she frowned, unable to even think of what was right or wrong given the situation, she looked to Cecilia, "O-ok. We'll...talk to Professor Drake o-or someone..."
<Cecilia> Cecilia nodded. "Yeah, and after that we're gonna go upstairs and never mention this incident again, because if anyone ever finds out that I screamed like a pre-teen girl my reputation will be ruined," said Cecilia weakly. Trying to inject some humour into the situation.
<@Mayday> "Y-yeah.", Mayday couldn't laugh, instead standing up and lifting her goggles. She closed the holo-screen box and loaned Cecilia her hand without a word.
<Cecilia> Cecilia gave May's hand a squeeze. "You'll see...We'll laugh about this later..." No, you won't you liar .
<@Mayday> With a little smile, Mayday nodded, enthusiasm clearly lacking, "Maybe...."