Proving Grounds (OPEN)

[Quasimodo Brook]

Quazzi watched the newly created monstrosities train, resting his chin on the knuckles of his hand. Picking out a spliced creature who made an error, Quazzi raised his Gatling gun arm and opened fire on the beast, sending bullets through the subject's brain and heart.

"That is exactly what will happen to you if you ever disobey or make an error in the battlefield," Quazzi smiled coldly at the surviving creatures. "And I will thouroughly enjoy it."

[Ashleigh "Blondie" Williams]

Blondie walked with her hands behind her back. She had been to this place many times. In fact, she knew the Experimental Vaults like the back of her hand. Well, her reformed hand that was. Of course everything about her was reformed. She still had most of her original muscles, tissues and the like but because she was a Reanimated, she wasn't exactly her entire self. This didn't bother her. And if it did, Blondie hid it well.

Her hat was pulled down and her poncho was thrown over her shoulder. She had been told numerous times to improve her look. Her own advisers encouraged it. But Blondie refused. She wanted to dress the same way she had always dressed. Even if it was a bit unorthodox. Blondie was, in all intents and purposes, a loner. She never took well to friendships or alliances and for the most part she wanted to stay that way. But she knew she couldn't. She was a leader of an entire country. And unfortunately for her, she had to make friends.

Her military was always under constant training. Makes the strong stronger. Which was true. Blondie's idea was if the people wanted to better themselves, especially the Experimentals, than she urged them to join the armed forces. It wasn't so much that she wanted a lethal force at her disposal, she was above that, but if it gave the newly transformed citizens a sense of pride then she knew she had to continue the growth of their army.

She looked up. Unfortunately, there were numerous soldiers who had lost all their rational thinking when they had first died. And typically, they were kept in check. Of course Quasimodo Brook was different. He was one of their veteran leaders who had a nasty reputation to go along with his rather monstrous appearance. And just as Blondie turned her eyes to him, he had shredded one of the underlings to pieces.

"Quasimodo," her voice was stern. She had talked to him before about his irrational behavior. But as always he either forgot, or he chose not to listen. "I understand that you tend to have a sick obsession of teaching our young soldiers lessons, and while I am all for it, I am however against your sadistic behavior. We do no kill our own. I've told you this countless times before. Though it appears you often forget our personal conversations."

Blondie's blue eyes flashed back to the underlings. "As you were." She motioned for them to give her space as she continued to confront Quasimodo. "Now...Quazzi, talk to me. Just how well is our precious army doing? And do I have any right to be worried?"

[Quasimodo Brook]

Quasimodo turned to look at his leader, Blondie Williams, who was reprimanding him for his use of lethal force on the weakling creature. "I am sorry, Ms. Williams," he said with a cold smile. "I have a very poor memory." Naturally, this was a complete lie; Quazzi's memory was perfectly fine, but he chose to simply ignore the leader of the Experimental Vaults.

"However, if we do not wipe out those who could cost us a victory, then our army will be seen as worthless. But I will attempt to curb my 'sadistic behavior,' as you put it." Again, another lie. Then came the question about the army. "So far, it's doing well," Quazzi said, glaring at the underlings. "That was the first I've had to execute in a month. As far as I know, there is no need to worry."

[Ashleigh "Blondie" Williams]

Hmm.... She never liked his attitude. Quasimodo was quite literally a beast. But he was one of the best soldiers she had. And she was extremely happy to have him as one of her captains. Even if he doesn't give me respect. But Blondie had a way with dealing with that. And just as Quazzi had finished talking, she quickly flipped both her revolvers out of her gun belt and held them just inches from the brute's face.

"I'd let to think that I'm a rational gal, Quazzi. Just like I'd like to believe your a rational man. But when push comes to shove," she clicked the trigger back, "remember which side of the gun you're on."

Blondie easily flipped the revolvers back and placed into her gun belt. There was nothing smug about her. She had meant every word. And she had said all she could. Now it's his turn....I hope Quazzi has the good sense to pick the right answer. Though she was overly pleased when he told her that he hadn't killed at all this month. That was a always good sign. And luckily for Blondie, since she saw fit, the deceased soldier would be back. Maybe not as his normal self, but oh...he'll be back. And then Quazzi can repeat the process all over again.

[Quasimodo Brook]

Quazzi's eyes narrowed as Blondie shoved her guns in his face. "I'm on your side, of course, Ms. Williams," he said coldly, staring her down. "I trust in your leadership, and believe you will be able to lead us in the fight against Atlantis and the Barren Wastes. I am simply doing what I feel is best for the army."

"Now, was there another reason that you needed to visit? Something important I need to know? Or were you simply checking up on me and the trainees?"

[Annihilator]

"Time to initiate tests. And what better place to do so then the Testing Grounds?" one of the rogue scientists said to another. Jason assumed that this was one of the lead scientists. He was quite recognizable from the others by the fact that over his left eye laid an eye patch.

"I want two things done. I want him entered in discreetly, no traces back to us. The second thing I want done is some of our advanced combat drones to be entered in as well." he continued.

"It will be done sir. And don't worry, we know what we're doing. We haven't failed you yet, and we certainly don't intend to."

Jason remembered one day how one of the officers made an error, and the man in the eye patch personally executed him. There was not much room for mistakes in this group of rogues.

And so, the neural shock emitter implanted into Annihal's skull was activated, capable of delivering thousands of volts throughout his whole body, in case he ever attempted escape, and he was loaded up to be shipped to arena. While on board, he desperately tried to break the plasma chain between the cuffs around his wrists, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even weaken them.

Soon after, they arrived, and Annihal was brought out, and led through a series of vacant hallways. He had no clue where he was, and was feeling lightheaded. Maybe he was having trouble adjusting to the light. This was the first time he had been brought out of the dark and gloomy labs since he was captured and transformed by the rogue scientists.

This, grogginess, disappeared however, as he found himself in an arena of sorts. There were other combatants, along with what seemed to be a man with a machine gun for an arm sitting above the grounds, observing all below him.

The man who escorted Annihal was now nowhere to be seen, and a door shut behind him.

Mechanical whirring caught his ear, and he turned around to face seven robots, each with a machine built on one arm, and a plasma saw on the other.

Without warning, they opened fire. Annihal ran from the barrage of bullets, but was quickly caught in the hail, and was riddled with holes. Annihal quickly hurled a fireball at two were standing close to each other. The burst of flame that resulted from the collision sent the two stumbling back and canceling their attack, but didn't seem to do much damage. But Jason didn't expect his fire to do much damage to robotics. For these foes, he'd have to get up close and personal to render them scrap metal with his claws.

Doing his best to ignore the immense pain, Annihal leaped into the air, screeching as he landed claws first on one of the robots. His wounds had healed mildly the few seconds he was out of their line of fire, so he was feeling somewhat better. He quickly ripped into the robot's circuitry, disabling it, and dashing to the next before they could retaliate.

The next one attempted to defend itself with it's saw. Annihal tripped it with his tail, then grabbed it by it's leg, lifting it off of the ground and slamming it back. He repeated this until it ceased moving.

One of the robots sneaked up from behind while Annihal was brutalizing one of it's brethren, and slammed it's saw into Annihal's skull. It tore through his flesh, and ripped into the neural emitter. Luckily, Annihal knocked the robot back before it could dig any deeper and hit his brain.

It was now five versus one, and on the opposite side of the arena, a man with an eyepatch smiled deviously, before retreating into the shadows...

[Ashleigh "Blondie" Williams]

"Good. I'm glad we understand each other then." She could tell that Quazzi was beginning to get aggravated with her. And in truth, Blondie didn't mean it. But she's a harsh leader. If there's something that doesn't agree with her, then she makes it a point to quite literally point it out. It's not her fault. That's just who she naturally is. Of course...pointing out the obvious doesn't set well with certain people. And judging from her commanding officer's snarl...he wasn't all that amused.

She let out a sigh and looked around the training grounds. The rest of the troops were right at work. They didn't even seemed fazed by her presence. Which was good. Very good. "Actually...no there isn't. And by my good graces, I'll let you be Quasimodo. I apologize if I happened to offend you in any way, do know that I don't mean to. I respect your leadership immensely, hell...you are one of, if not, the best commanding officer that I have. But...when it comes to tutoring our fine young and prosperous army--do know that the killing of our own men is frowned upon. We aren't monsters."

She gave him a salute and was about to turn her back to him when a rather loud and frightening noise went off. Puzzled and more importantly confused by the whole thing, Blondie quickly looked back to Quasimodo. "Do you know anything of that?"

The noise went off again. This time even louder. All of the soldiers froze. Something's not right. And with another sigh, Blondie began running towards the sound. If Quasimodo decided to follow her, she would be incredibly glad. But if he didn't, which she doubted, then she knew she had a huge threat waiting ahead of her.

[Quasimodo Brook]

Quazzi straightened up a bit as Blondie complimented his military leadership. "Apology accepted, Ms. Williams," he said with an icy smile. "I will refrain from killing more of our fine young...men," pausing for a brief second and letting it sink in. Returning the salute, he turned and narrowed his eyes at the screeching noise.

Blondie was already on the move, running in the direction of the aggravating sound. Quazzi hefted his Gatling gun arm and glared at the troops, and followed after her, not knowing what to expect.

[Annihilator]

Annihilator lunged at the one he had knocked back, and proceeded to rip it limb by limb. He tossed the torso aside, and turned to face his next foe.

But he didn't see any of them. But while he couldn't see them, he could hear them, even smell them. They were close, but they seemed to be utilizing a camouflage ability. Annihilator located one, and started wildly slashing in it's direction to hit it.

He felt his claws scrape metal, and soon, the robot appeared, electricity surging through it as it's camouflage deactivated.
Before Annihal could finish the job however, a saw came bursting out of his chest. The robot behind him then pulled it's arm out and watched as the beast fell on his knees.

Annihilator clutched his chest. His heart was badly damaged. But his incredible healing factor was already hard at work. As long as he wasn't attacked again, he could make it. But the two robots standing over him had no mercy. One of them raised their saws, preparing to strike.

Strong sonic waves worked first through his throat, then out through his mouth. His Sonic Roar scrambled the robot's circuitry and sent them falling on their backs. The wave surged almost 5 yards in every dimension before vanishing.

He was now deaf, and his throat hurt like hell, but his healing factor would take care of that in due time, but what was most important now, was that his wounds were almost healed. His heart had been restored, but it was still terribly exposed.

Unfortunately, the robots were already getting back up, due to an auto-repair Jason assumed as he got ready to fight once again..

[Ashleigh "Blondie" Williams]

Blondie quickened her pace as the noises grew even louder than before. Her mind was on one thing. What in the world am I dealing with? Ever since she returned back to the Vaults, she had never ever heard a sound like that one. And with the close footfalls of Quasimodo behind her, she was definitely relieved that she wasn't going this alone.

She rounded a corner. Her gun belt jostled loosely against her hips but it didn't bother her. In fact, Blondie reached for both of her revolvers as she entered a whole new training facility. Her heart nearly stopped at the sight before her.

In the center of the room was a creature. It was a combination of some type of animal that Blondie had never seen either. "Holy hell...," she murmured under her breath. The thing roared with anger. It was hurt. Badly. And while the winged spawn seemed eager to fight, she knew it couldn't possibly take on the rest of its foes alone.

She looked back over her shoulder as Quasimodo slowed to a stop beside her. "Ready, Commander?" And with a quick tip of the hat, she ran towards one of the metallic robots as she fired off a round right into its chest.

[Quasimodo Brook]

Quazzi raised an eyebrow in surprise at the sight before him. A monstrous reptilian being, certainly not one he'd seen before, was smashing through robots like there was no tomorrow. But it was definitely injured, and definitely in trouble. He looked at Blondie and smiled. "I'm always ready," he replied, and opened fire on the robots before him, bullets ripping through their metallic bodies.

Pouncing forward, Quazzi then smashed his Gatling gun arm over the head of another opponent, before releasing several small missiles contained in his shoulders that tore through even more robots. Machine gun bullets poured from his fingertips as he massacred his cybernetic foes.

[Annihilator]

Suddenly, the robots turned their attention to attackers that Annihilator didn't recognize. It was like divine intervention. They appeared in the nick of time and saved him from the clutches of death.

The newfound allies bought him enough time to fully heal his wound, and as soon as the flesh sealed, he targeted a straggling robot and closed in on it, ripping it to shreds.

Even though smoke from the robot's overloaded core filled his nostrils, he picked up a familiar scent.

The man with the eye patch, he's here... Jason thought. He looked at his allies. They seemed to be doing fine by themselves, and not many robots were remaining.

He took off, following the scent, leaving his allies behind to clean up the mess. Every step, the scent grew stronger. He was close, he knew it. He bashed down a door, and entered what looked like a maintenance tunnel. A single light illuminated a single section of the tunnel, and the man with the eye patch stood in the light amongst the darkness, smiling.

Annihilator menacingly advanced towards his tormentor. But out of the darkness, a strange, bulking creature with a cybernetic arm emerged, and struck Annihilator in the ribs with enough force to break them. Annihilator stumbled back, clutching his chest in pain. He examined the attacker. It was one of their experiments. And from the looks of it, it was their best result, at least, until Annihilator was created.

"Bring it on..." Jason said, as his ribs were already healing...