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Kotomine_Rin:
Spidey

His eyes shot up wide-eyed, not because of the traps he dodged or even because of the girl picking up speed. This was unbelievable! "Jesus, are you two serious!? Then I'll have to get you to watch it at my place! You're missing out!"

Explosions rippled the air, the corridors started to catch on fire behind them. No matter. As far as the spider was concerned, he was already resolved to this. He'd always keep running forward.

His eyes dropped embarrassingly, and for a moment he refused to look at the two. Was this what it was like? To feel normal happiness?

"Let's just watch movies when this is over... together..."

But soon, the sound of static cut through the explosions. Drones began to slip through the cracks, buzzing around with their guns to shoot the trio down as they advanced. Was this also part of the test? Before the answer could be uttered, the spider began to cut them down with his web. "Don't fall behind!"


And the static warned of an ominous future.

"We wished to create a hero. A perfect organism that would protect this city. But time after time, our project proved unsuccessful. Until we met that man."

And as it spoke, the black gaps that surrounded them lit up to reveal more tv-screens, images, and recordings of children being cut open, experimented on, tested in the same wy the three were tested. Again and again. Despite the pleas, despite the cries, you could only move forward. The static soon cut to show a man hidden by shadows. His features were indistinguishable, only his skin as pale as the most pallid parchment showed through his clothes. And as soon as he flashed on the screens, he vanished to show a flood of data arrays, scrolling down with no appearance to ever stop.

"It was an incredible discovery. To think we could harness the power of the old world to awaken humans. With our newly developed enhancement drug, anyone's latent potential could be unlocked. We could have made a world of Gods."

YOLF:
Justice

The steedless Rider was not as fast as the two. He stretched his senses, he honed his steps, and he sped after, focusing not on the traps right around the corner, but the ones after that, the dangers that were looming seconds ahead in his descent. He ducked under hails of gunfire before they roared, he rolled through explosions before they could strike him head-on, and he allowed the less of many harms and those that he could not flip away from to break against his armor and dissipate against his constitution.

Justice ignored the screens. Static would be better. Somehow, these words were like a wind riding the desert dunes, revealing old, buried thoughts unbidden.

"Flawed castings from a perfect mold. There was no deviation in the process, therefor, the materials must have been impure."
...

"Did you ever believe it was the Creator's hand who seeded you?"
...

"You will never be anything but weapons."
...

"Ere long, you will see the mistake thine siblings have made. The lie all ye have accepted in place of the inevitable."

A silver tree, weeping black fruits onto a lawless realm. A youth that never was, drenched in blood. A starless land, hateful and longing for your return, where you were first carried by something other than your own feet. Deceit, regret, anger and fear.

Justice dragged Absolution across the screens at his side, and eviscerated signals and gutted electronics threw a pall of wretched noise over the echoing transmission.

yinsukin:
Suerte

Revolting.

That was the only thought that came to mind as Suerte ran through the corridor.  Those children ripped away from their families, the thought forced a scowl onto the cowgirl's face.  The world of the gods?  How arrogant.  As if the gods could be reached by throwing away a few human lives.

Suerte slowed down the second she heard the drones behind her, hiding within the debris created from Justice's blade.  Bullets sailed towards her, only to miraculously strike the peices of metal flying from the walls.  Guns in hand, she aimed at the drones, the cracks of her guns barely signaling the bullets that flew out of them.

"Or one piece!" she yelled with a smile.

She didn't need the corridor to remind her.  The only option is forward.

Kotomine_Rin:
Spidey

One by one, the drones fell and burst like the expendable machines they were. But as they fell and burst into flames, the machinery leaked fluids for a moment. It was too short to truly sink in, they were running past the traps too fast. But perhaps not. Perhaps it was better to simply ignore it.

The broken drones revealed small brains trapped in the machinery. The sort of underdeveloped organs more befitting a child's than a grown human brain.

"Oh right! Uh, One Piece's kind of lame since the time skip though! Why not Redline? It's got badass races and stuff!" He cut, and cut, and cut more. Following Suerte, he cut along the screens until the gap was exposed. "Wrong way! Your path leads to safety! But the answers are straight down hell." He jumped into the darkness and proceeded through the dark corridor.

Like Vergil, leading Dante into the circles of the inferno.

"But it was a mistake."

Blades and more came shredding through the dark hall, like a trapped corridor trying to slice and skewer them on the spot. But he didn't give up. He couldn't. He had already started a long time ago. Tonight, this ends.

"We tried everything. From hypnosis therapy to drugs and radiation. But it wasn't close enough. Our prototypes were too unstable. By taking them at a young age and using suggestive techniques to change their identities, we thought we could reach closer results through placebos. To make them truly believe their new roles, and acclimate their souls to the artificial implants. But that was a failure as well. Rather... we had already failed the moment we put our faith in that substance. That thing... was surely not meant for humans."

That devil... it truly thought nothing of this even as it spoke up. And yet, the feeling of unease did not end.

"The failures were unstable rubbish, barely worth selling to some cults as expendable soldiers. But two of our top projects managed to pass preliminary testing. Let us call them... A and B. No, V and Z. But their minds reacted aversely to the procedures. The recessive simply threw away his entire identity. The dominant one... his mind split and fragmented into a myriad of 'heroes', trying to fill some kind of void. Or perhaps to cope with the experiments. Oh well... In the end, our project was aborted. Our dreams were rendered null by this world's will. It simply can't be helped."

The spider just kept cutting, silent... and suddenly somber.


The halls and traps lead to a much more spacious room underground, with cold echoes and drips ominously topping the darkness. A dim light flickered under a doorway, the only visible bastion left in this place.

"This is it. End of the line." The killer looked sad. "Thanks... for helping me get back at these assholes." His eyes trailed down.

Once they walked through that door, there'd be no going back.

However, another door laid hidden in darkness.

"You know, you're a lucky bastard Justice. I wish I had a girlfriend like yours." He managed to smile at Justice. "So, ready to move forward?"

YOLF:
Justice

Justice felt like spitting, inundated with naked frustration. He was sick of this nonsense, running them ragged like they were circus monkeys. The avalanche of blades at last made him crack the ground with his steps, and out came his fury. A fan of spinning saws shattered against his empowered skin, and with a sweeping glare that blinded the entire corridor and sailed over Spidey and Suerte's heads, he melted through a score of the ones that followed.

When they stepped into the unnerving darkness, gaining a moment to breathe, the Rider shed his titanic seeming and rolled his shoulders. "Partner, not girlfriend," he corrected. For a second then, he placed Spidey in his sights, but shook his head. "It was nothing. What next?"

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